


Bleed Magic

by RockWithItWriting



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Angst, Angst and Feels, Drama, Family Drama, Gen, Heavy Angst, M/M, Original Character(s), Teen Angst
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-08-27
Updated: 2021-01-07
Packaged: 2021-03-06 22:48:55
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 16
Words: 26,751
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26146687
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RockWithItWriting/pseuds/RockWithItWriting
Summary: orion doesn’t know why harry potter doesn’t know about their shared history. he doesn’t know why nobody believes him about his father. he doesn’t know why his father is willing to risk it all for everyone but his son. [title from idkybtfm]
Relationships: Draco Malfoy/Original Character(s), Draco Malfoy/Original Male Character(s)
Comments: 8
Kudos: 45





	1. .01 i wanna take you home, a night out on the town,

"Ori... Ori! Please wake up."

"What, Holly?" He's roused from sleep only briefly, trying to slip back to the nether before she speaks again. Salem purrs next to his face, and he scritches absent-mindedly at the cat's back.

"I think there's someone in the garden!"

Orion's heart skips for a moment before he decides she must be mistaken. He groans and rolls over, pulling his duvet closer to himself. Salem chirps indignantly. "Holly, you're hearing things." He grumbles, "Go back to sleep. Where's Moony?" Orion is already drifting back into the dream he can't really remember.

"Dad's at his interview with the headmaster!" Holly shuffles and prods her God-brother in the back with her wand and he grunts, "Come on! I heard them apparate in!" Orion realizes in a brief moment of clarity that she sounds genuinely distressed, but dismisses it still. He doesn't have the energy. He was up half the night, worried about going back to school.

"Again," Orion grumbles, "You're hearing things." It's two distinctive pops that make Orion sit up, hair standing on end from sleep. His heart takes off in his chest and his lungs stutter to a halt. Orion can't see anything without his glasses, so he squints until he can locate his wand on the nightstand. "Shite, I guess someone _is_ in our garden."

Holly presses Orion's glasses into his hand as he scrambles for his wand. Orion throws himself out of bed as another pop sounds just outside. "That makes four, Ori... I'm scared. Nobody knows where the house is, 'cept for Dad and us." Orion grunts and pushes Holly's shoulder, gently, toward his bed. She'd be safer in his room. His jaw clenches and he towers over the bed, trying to come up with some semblance of a plan in his head. Salem skirts in between his ankles, hackles raised as she senses his anxiety and the tension in the air.

"Lay down. Have you your wand?" She nods and Orion pushes a lock of her mousy brown hair behind her ear, pressing a kiss to her forehead. He orders his cat to stay with her, and Salm curls up in Holly's lap. In just his pants, with his wand in hand, Orion heads downstairs. He's not old enough to perform magic legally outside of school, but he doesn't really care. Orion can hear a conversation behind his front door, but it's too muffled and he's too close to sleep to be able to decipher what they're saying.

Then someone knocks on the door. Orion jerks it open and aims his wand at whoever is behind it. He knows that he's a sight - Orion Black in just his pants, black hair in disarray, wand pointed at the necks of three Ministry Aurors and the Minister of Magic himself. "Oh," Orion squints, and barely lowers his wand. The Aurors track the movement, one arm cocked back to reach for their wand holsters. "Minister." The breeze makes him realize he's nearly naked and he shivers. Orion's voice is hard and cold.

"Ah, Mister Black. Is Remus in?" The minister feigns politeness, like always.

"No, sir, as you very well know he's at Hogwarts. That Trace you have on him doesn't expire until three days after the full moon." At the mention of the lycanthropy of his Godfather, Orion watches the men in the room shuffle awkwardly. "And, as you also know, it's only been two days." He leads them to the sofa, and gestures for them to sit regardless of whether or not he wants them to. They'd make themselves at home no matter what he said.

Orion doesn't sit down when the rest of them take their seats. He's taller than the minister when they're both standing - when the other man is sitting Orion positively towers over him.

"Well," The minister shifts in his seat, probably uncomfortable, "Go put on some clothing, boy, and gather Holly. When your father returns home, we'll speak." Orion's jaw sets and he looks away for only a moment before he speaks, wand hanging limp next to his naked thigh. He agrees, as a good wizard should, and then gathers Holly and some trousers, heading back down the stairs of the quaint, little country home. Salem patters behind them, hissing when she catches sight of the Minister. One of the Ministry men asks for tea and Orion obliges, hearing the pop as Moony returns home when he's serving the men in their living room. He's left a shirt off, if not to piss them off.

Moony enters a bounce in his step that's foreign so close to a full moon and stops when he sees the absolutely murderous look in his adoptive son's eyes, as he's bent to pour tea for the men on the couch between them. "Remus, men from the Ministry. Here to talk to us. It's important, or that's what they want us to think." He's got a snarl on his face, and it only deepens when the minister speaks.

"Child, I understand you're bitter, but perhaps you should mind your tongue."

"Minister," Orion growls, "Perhaps you should mind your magical traces on my family." The teacups on the table rattle and Orion puts down the kettle before it explodes in his hands. His magic surges like a tide under his skin.

"Ori," Remus's voice is a deep timbre, a warning lacing his tone, "Behave."

Orion, angrily, backs off. Remus corrals his two children onto a sofa tucked into a corner, plants spilling over their shoulders from the window sill. Orion calms under the touch of the vines and inhales, trying to keep his emotions under check. He leans into the touch of the greenery. Moony greets the ministry members with none of the anger that the two teenagers held in their stomachs. The Minister sets his teacup onto his saucer, none of the drink passing his lips, and leans forward as if he's about to deliver a fatal blow. Perhaps he is.

"We are here to inform you of an escape from Azkaban." His words suck the air from the room and Holly's hand finds Orion's, squeezing, "Only one prisoner has escaped, but it's something the three of you should know. The escapee is Sirius Black."


	2. .02 say that you're pretty so that you stand up before i drag you down.

If there is air in the room before, there is none now. Moony turns to face Orion, who had stood when he heard it and had shaken free from the grip of the plants. "My Dad's escaped?" It feels like the wind has been kicked from his chest.

"Now, boy, don't look so happy about that!" The Minister stands, too, wagging a finger in Orion's direction. He tries to look threatening, but Orion stands taller, and broader than the Minister as well.. "Your father is a killer, and a Death Eater, to boot!" The plants behind Holly begin to swell as Orion takes a threatening half step forward. A few vines wind their way over Orion's shoulder, holding his wrists back. His magic surges underneath his skin, coiling around in contrasting feelings of warmth and ice. Salem paces in a tight circle in front of the fireplace.

"My father was no Death Eater! My father was a man without a fair trial locked into that rubbish bin you call a government facility!" Orion booms. Moony stands as the Aurors do, holding a hand out toward Orion but he beats his Godfather to the punch, "No, Moony! Let me speak!" His face is furious, and Orion reminds Moony so much of his old friend he lets the boy talk, "You found a finger of a boy who was friends with my father in school and locked him up because Voldemort was at large and you were bloody scared." Orion takes pride in watching grown men flinch back from him and butterfly weed blooms from the vines that hold him in the crook of his elbow, "Did you do any tests? Look at my father's wand? Did you even think about the idea of a Polyjuice Potion? Or did you just want a face to blame for the murder of the Potters and Pettigrew that you threw my father to the wolves? I've read the transcripts of the trail, I've heard the stories. Azkaban is a right bloody horrible place, anyway, how can you be proud of it?"

The man standing to the minister's right brustles and puffs out his chest, "I'll have you know Azkaban is a state of the art facility! Mind yourself, boy!" The table holding teacups and saucers rattles before shooting violently toward the ceiling and Orion stumbles back as the vines pull and tug at his arms and chest. Wands at the ready, the ministry officials look unsteadily at the boy fuming in front of them. Salem yowls.

"State of the art, my arse!" He snarls, "Have you been inside your own facility!? I have, Minister," The title is spat from Orion's mouth as he nearly vibrates from his skin. The vines begin to wrap around his throat and down to his abdomen. "I've visited my Dad there, and it's inhumane. Dementors around every corner, _starving_ prisoners. You keep them on the brink of death until the day they decide to give up and finally bloody expire. I'm glad my father escaped from the shite excuse for a government facility." He spits out the thin tendril that's cupped his chin and tried to worm its way into his mouth, and the vine settles around his cheek, petting the area of cheekbone under his eye. Salem skitters across the floor, leaping onto the couch next to Holly.

Moony procures his wand from his robes when the Minister's wand hits Orion's throat, the latter grinning as he snarls at the man who's supposed to lead his kind. "Your father killed, boy. He killed his childhood school chum and twelve innocent Muggles. You're glad that a maniac like him is back on the streets?"

"Where would you rather have him, Minster?" Orion grins, but it's a wild grin. It's something unhinged, and feral looking. It makes the boy look older than he is, too much older. Too much like his father.

"Orion, leave it." The order is cold, but the person it's meant for doesn't hear it. The minister does, though.

He lowers his wand as if he knows what's about to happen. Orion turns to look at Moony, all fourteen-year-old rage, semi-orphaned boy-almost-man who's more powerful than most in the room. The vines have nearly pulled him back onto the couch where he had been sitting, but Orion doesn't seem to notice them. His voice is cold and detached when he speaks. "No, Moony, I want to see if the Minister of _fucking_ Magic will look at me and tell me that he wants my father dead. I want to know if he's willing to tell me, to my face, that he wants me an orphan, like a man." He's growling when he turns back to the Minister and the man's Aurors, "Can you say that to me, Minister? Tell me you want my Dad dead?" Orion's voice pitches upward, like he's talking to a child. Several aconite flowers bloom on the vines that cover his body and petunias begin to bloom on his legs.

It's a standoff and finally, the Minster backs down, pocketing his wand before bidding the trio of ragtag magic-folk a hasty goodbye, telling them that they'd receive an owl with a letter describing what was being done about Black's escape. The door shuts behind them and Moony waits until they hear the sounds of disapparation before he rounds on Orion. Several orange lilies join the flowers on his neck, and one creeps so close to his mouth that when Orion inhales that's all he can smell. The flowers wilt and begin to die when Moony begins to yell.

"Orion James Sirius Black, how _dare_ you speak to the Minister of Magic like that!" Orion watches Holly sneak out of the room with a squirming Salem tucked in her arms before he replies. The flowers begin to wilt even more, shrinking and disappearing as the vines around his body retreat.

"How could you listen to him say those things about my father?" Orion, like any teenager, feels hurt deep in his soul, but lets it show as anger, "Your friend! How could you?" The vines surge once more, except they wrap around Orion's legs like they want to keep him trapped there.

"Yes, Sirius was my friend, Orion, but he's killed. That's not the man I knew." Moony looks stern, and Orion's heart breaks just a little. He realizes this is a fight he has to pick. He'd never forgive himself if he walked away without having this conversation.

"But he's my father!" Orion's voice finally breaks, as does he, tears pooling at the bottom of his dark eyes. A vine snaps around his elbow and he finally shakes free of the plants. Orion takes several strong steps toward Moony, who doesn't flinch. "He's my father and I don't believe he's done it! You've never been to visit him, you haven't seen how he _looks_ in there!" Orion swipes at his eyes with the back of his hands. "I'm glad he's escaped, Moony. I'd rather die than see him go back." Orion's lip wobbles and he lets himself fall when Moony pulls Orion into his arms, holding the young boy as close to his heart as he can.


	3. .03 crawling up your skin; potions, pills, and medicines

When the Golden Trio asks to sit in Orion, Holly, and Moony's compartment, the fourth year thinks nothing of it. He, of course, is aware of the history he shares with Harry Potter, but Harry seemingly isn't. It's strange. He wonders why nobody would have told him and, the one time he'd approached Harry to break the subject, the younger boy had no idea what Orion had been talking about.

That's why, for all the years he's been semi-friends with Harry Potter, not once has he mentioned Prongs, or Moony, or Lily, or Wormtail. Not past the initial drop of the name, of course. Orion hasn't mentioned his Dad, so he's surprised when _Harry_ brings Sirius up.

Harry makes sure the compartment door is shut, that Moony is asleep, and then he begins his tale, pointedly avoiding looking at Orion, like he knows he shouldn't be saying what he is. Orion does his best to ignore Harry, focusing on his book and the cat in his lap instead. It doesn't take long before he's interrupting, though.

"Your Dad, Ron," Harry starts, "Stopped me at the Leaky Cauldron before we left."

"The Leaky Cauldron?" Orion can't help himself and interrupts, pulling chocolate from inside his robe and offering some to Holly, "That place is a right mess, it is. What'cha doin' there, Potter?" He dog-ears his book and Harry sighs, upset that he's been interrupted. Orion can't help but think how much he really looks like Prongs in Moony's old photographs that Orion hoarded under his bed. It hurts in a strange way. Salem bumps her head against his hand, purring in hope he'll calm down.

"I blew up my Aunt. Anyway -" Harry cuts his eyes back to Hermione, dead set on ignoring Orion.

"- you blew up your Aunt?!" Holly's eyes are wide and she leans forward, grinning maniacally, "How'd you do it, Harry? How'd you not get your wand snapped?" As much as Orion wants to keep egging Harry on - he can see that familiar glint in his eyes that matched the photographs - he puts a hand on Holly's shoulder and pushes her back into the seat. He shakes his head once.

"Oi, let the boy speak, Holly."

"Who are you, my father?" She sticks her tongue out.

"No, but he is!" Orion jerks his head toward the sleeping Moony, still put out from the recent full moon and smirks. He's about to say something more when Ron interrupts, glaring darkly at Orion the whole time. Orion thinks, momentarily, about rattling the luggage above his head where Hewig is sitting very precariously, but he won't do that to the poor bird. Besides, Salem had been eyeing the bird for the whole train trip and he didn't want to bring more attention to the owl. She'd never be so audacious to try and eat an owl, but that didn't mean the urge wasn't in the feline.

"Ignore them, Harry," Ron speaks gruffly, "My Dad, you were saying." Orion purses his lips and tries not to roll his eyes. Ron has never liked him, or Holly for that matter. He's sure it has something to do with their lineage, but could never be bothered to ask. Orion's not too worried about who likes him and who doesn't like him - even if he is a teenager who values that stuff.

"Right, your Dad. He said that man who escaped from Azkaban,"

"Sirius Black," Hermione interjects, her eyes barely flickering in Orion's direction, where his spine straightens and he shares a look with Holly. "Yeah, it's been all over the news. Muggle news, too. The Minister went to the Prime Minister of the Muggle world and had him put out stories about him." Orion grinds his teeth together and the chocolate wrapper on his lap crumbles into a ball by itself, Salem swatting at it.

"Mr. Weasley says he's escaped to come after me." Harry believes it, looking worriedly at the three wizards squished in across from him and Hermione next to him. "To finish what Voldemort started. Said he's escaped to kill me." There's a heartbeat of tense silence before Orion snorts.

"Bullshit," He cuts in, still raw from the Minister's visit, "How can you believe that? Sounds like a load of codswallop." His throat is too thick to swallow, so he downs the rest of his water.

"My Dad works for the ministry, I believe it." Ron leans around Holly to look at Orion but shrinks back when he sees the raging anger in the elder boy's eyes. The water cup crushes in the holder, the water evaporating into the air as Salem leans forward to sniff it. Hermione takes over, trying to calm the situation before it explodes into something worse than an argument. She glances nervously at Orion, rattled by the magic happening with no incantations.

"The Ministry wants nothing better for Harry than to keep him safe, Orion." She tries to appease everyone at the same time, but Orion wants none of it. "He's obviously an extremely powerful wizard to manage escape from Azkaban, and we've all read what he did to those Muggles. Whether or not it's true, they have to operate like it is." Orion stands, upending the sweets he'd been munching on from his lap. His book heads toward the floor, but never makes it. It hovers several inches off of the floor, pages fluttering violently. Orion clenches his fists, glaring somewhere between Harry and Hermione, doing his best to not set his book on fire. He breathes roughly through his nose and tries to focus on Salem purring in his lap.

"Like you bloody know anything, Granger." Orion snarls, fists shaking at his sides, "Both parents alive, nothing bad happened to you before you could _talk_. My father is not a _killer_ , nor a Deatheater, and it would do you lot well to remember that." The book shoots toward the ceiling and then nearly knocks Orion on the top of the head as he dumps his cat into Holly's lap and heads from the compartment and it clatters to the ground.

If he wakes Moony up slamming the compartment door open and then shut, his Godfather doesn't move. Neither does Holly, apologizing to the shocked faces of her friends as Orion stalks away, pulling his robes tighter around his person. The icy-hot sensation of his magic makes his hands shake and he does his best to imagine that he's shoving it down into a bottle and corking it up. Orion bumps into a second year Ravenclaw who sees the green crest on Orion's left side first and then the sneering face looming above him. "Sorry," Orion grunts, but the Ravenclaw skitters around him fearfully, anyway.

He snorts out of his nose, tongue pressing hard against his cheek as he feels eyes on him as he stalks down the corridor. Everyone knows him, knows his Mum is dead and his Dad is - _was_ \- in Azkaban. It's so easy to fall into that, to be who everyone thinks he is. He's a Slytherin - it doesn't matter that his Dad was a Black and a Gryffindor - he's just fulfilling the Black legacy as a Slytherin. Mean, messy, and evil. It's so easy. Nothing has been easier, in fact.

Orion slips between people who give him a wide berth, and he pretends not to notice. If he weren't on a bloody train he'd head outside for some air, but he can't. The closest he can get is slipping into an empty compartment on the Slytherin side of the train and opening all of the windows. There's luggage, because of course there is, but he doesn't give a shit. He leans as close as he can to the open window and waits to feel better. The air swirls around him, but there's something wrong on it. It's buzzing with something unfamiliar but familiar, something cold and evil.

Orion never feels better.

Instead, he can feel the air temperature drop and he can watch the ice curl up the side of the train. He tries to figure out what he's feeling on the air when sudden fear grips Orion. He hears the brakes be applied, and he turns just in time for two other Slytherins to enter. "Black, what are you doing in my compartment?" Malfoy, the little prick, has a smirk on his face like always. "Filthy blood traitor."

"Big words from a little boy," Orion sneers, standing to his full height. Normally one year isn't much different in size but the Malfoy family has always been small, short. Orion? He's broader and taller than Malfoy and the cronie that's beside the boy. Orion has always been taller, more muscled, and broad than even his own family. He jerks his chin behind Malfoy, "Why are we stopping? Forget your nappy so Mummy and Daddy had to come to bring it to you?" He grins when Malfoy's wand presses under his chin, looking down on the seething boy. Blaise Zabini- at least Orion thinks that's his name - looks antsy.

"How dare you, you filthy -"

Malfoy doesn't get the chance to finish his sentence because Orion is swiping a hand around the compartment, his magic coming to life sweeping both of the boys behind him. Outside of the compartment, a figure is moving; it's big, black, and brings frost with it. A dementor. That's the magic that he had been feeling on the wind - the dark, decomposition of magic on the brink of death.

Orion can feel the dread building in his veins, his head spinning. They're looking for his father, he's sure of it, because there's not one, but two children on the train that Sirius Black could be going after. Two dementors pass by the compartment but the third, and last, turns its ugly head toward the three boys behind the frosted glass. Orion feels any resolve he had crumbling as tears well in his eyes and his magic struggles to the surface of his skin. He's felt this way before; like he's swimming with weights around his ankles, but it's so much more potent as he's shielding Malfoy and Blaise. He doesn't need his wand, but his hands are shaking too much to be able to cast without it. As the hands creep around the door and move it open, slowly, he digs it out of his robes and clutches it like a lifeline. It warms in his hands, and the feeling crawls up his arm and fades near his elbow. Orion clenches his jaw, backing up until he can feel Blaise and Malfoy crowded against the wall.

The dementor moves closer and it's like he's looking down a tunnel; what's the incantation? Orion can't remember it, and Moony drilled it into him. Damn it, he can't even find a happy memory - or is it a sad memory he needs? He can't remember and he's fumbling - the dementor turns to him, face wide and gaping, and Orion can hear, faintly, whimpering behind him and his wand drop to the floor. The warmth that it had brought is sucked from his body and Orion struggles to breathe. The dementor has its hands on his shoulder and is pulling him toward it, and he can feel the pressing pull of its enthusiasm. He's pulled away from Blaise and Malfoy and then the world tilts until it's all wrong, and he can hear arguing - a man and a woman. His stomach flips when he hears his Mum's name and the pop of his Dad disapparating.

He wants to scream, to push back against whatever is holding him back, but he can't. He can only watch as the dementor disappears and he's watching through crib-bars as his mother cries. She's crying, her body is convulsing - where's Dad? He's gone but there's - there's someone else and he's in the house and Mom is screaming and he can't do anything, he's so helpless and he's stuck in the crib and it's cold, it's dark, and Mom is screaming, begging for help and he can't do anything; she's saying his name, over and over and over, and her voice is breaking and she's -

Well, it's not her voice. It's Moony's voice, and Orion can feel himself shaking, laid flat on the floor. His vision is still blurry, but he can see Moony hovering over him, pale and worried. Through the cotton in his mouth, he can only say a few words: "Where's Mum?"

Orion is still shaking when he sits down to dinner that night, watching first years parade past with their witches hats proudly upon their heads. He smiles, but only a little bit. He can remember being that excited, walking in with nobody. He was alone until Holly came to Hogwarts. Everyone expected her, sweet little Holly-Dolly, to be a Ravenclaw or a Gryffindor, but she was placed in Hufflepuff.

He almost wishes she was in Slytherin, with him, but the whispers around Hogwarts were that he was a mark on the house of Lupin already - he didn't need any more of that to happen. Orion gazes at his empty plate, fraying the edge of his paper napkin, when someone rapts on the table in front of him with a rather manicured hand.

"Hey, Black, are you still crying?" Pansy leans over and snickers, "Draco told us all about it: you took one look at the dementor and passed out!"

"Did _Draco_ tell you about the sounds he made?" Orion snarls back, clenching his hands to conceal the shaking, "Because he was more than happy to hide behind me and snivel like the little bitch he is." Dumbledore is speaking, but Orion can't hear him. "Surely if I hadn't have shielded him, he and Zabini would be in the hospital wing crying to their mums." Orion's still sneering when the cheering starts, the first years already having been sorted. Pansy scowls and turns toward the front; the headmaster saying his last name drew his attention, too.

He perks up, focusing on the figure standing on the far end of the Great Hall. It's hard to hear, but Orion can fill in the blanks. The dementors - he shudders - will be on campus. There will be a curfew. Defense Against the Dark Arts, taught by Moony, will be more hands-on than any other year. Orion's stomach turns at the thought of Moony teaching him how to defend himself against Dad and, when the food appears in front of him, he doesn't eat any of it.


	4. .04 to drain you, and bleed your magic out.

The Slytherin common room is darker than usual when Holly enters, stretching and yawning as she does so. They have a weekend until term starts, so why not start off her third year with a secret getaway? The idea of her father and God-brother finding out doesn't even bother her - she knows her partner won't tell. In fact her partner doesn't even question why she's requested to be dropped off at the Slytherin dorm instead of her own dorm. She won't lie, she misses Orion. Usually he's only a room away, but now he's on the other side of the dungeons, locked behind several heavy doors.

It's silent under the lake, except for the dripping of the water in the distance and the sound of great beasts swimming. But Holly, if she strains her ears, can hear talking. The voices sound familiar and she recognizes one as her God-brother, but the other is hard to place. Curiosity killed the cat, but satisfaction brought it back, she supposes and heads towards where the whispering is hidden. Holly would be in a rather large amount of trouble if she was caught in the Slytherin common room after hours, but in all of the years that she's been sneaking in she's never been caught. Holly creeps around the corner and takes a peek at the hushed voices.

It is Orion, crouching in front of a fire in one of the many, great fireplaces littered around the common hall and adjacent hallways of the Slytherin Dungeon. He's not alone, though, and the shock of white hair sends Holly pulling back behind the wall to hide herself fully. They're talking in low tones, and Holly has to strain to be able to make out any of the words over the crackling of the fire.

"Is it always like that?"

"Not... Well, yes and no. I'd wager if I would have been more prepared I could have fought it off. It was only in the compartment because of me."

"Is there an incantation? Something that works every time?"

"Of course, just like a boggart."

"A what?"

"Never mind, you'll see. Anyways, I doubt Moon- Lupin'll teach it to you lot this year."

"So how am I going to protect myself? Those bloody things are all over campus."

"I could teach you."

"You'd do that? Who's to say I want to learn from you, Black?"

"You're a right git, Malfoy, but I suspect you don't want to feel like that again. Am I wrong?"

"No."

"Right, so stop being such a prick."

Holly disappears into the dungeons just before one of the boys comes around the corner, heart-pounding, and a grin on her face. Malfoy and Ori? Working together? Third-year is going to be one hell of a year for everyone, then.


	5. .05 oh, oh, oh, lonely little life, and nobody believes you now,

Orion meets with Malfoy the night after Moony gives the third years the boggart lesson. It's midnight when they find each other in the courtyard beside the lake, and Malfoy is early. He's overlooking the lake in muggle clothing, arm still wrapped in a brace. Orion knows Malfoy's been milking it around campus but here, in the dark, the younger boy clutches his arm like it still hurts. Perhaps it does. Orion wonders if the chill of the night air agitates the wound.

Orion approaches silently and Malfoy startles when he settles next to the younger boy. "Heard Potter's boggart was a dementor in class today. Thought it would have been Voldemort." Orion chews on the inside of his cheek.

"Don't say his name." Orion's eyebrows raise as he observes Malfoy's profile.  
  
"Malfoy, I have a lot more to be afraid of than some old tosser who's fucked off and died." The younger boy looks on at him in horror, shifting awkwardly. Orion can feel the heat of his gaze and scowls, "What, do you know more than I do? Have any familial secrets?"

Malfoy stands and stalks away, "Isn't that you? The one with family secrets?" Orion, without saying an incantation or removing his wand, stands as Malfoy's arms and legs snap together and he falls face-first in the dewy earth. It's only then that he removes his wand and undoes the spell, glaring down at the boy.

"I suppose it _is_ me that has the family secrets, Malfoy, but I would watch that mouth of yours. It will get you killed one day, it will. We're here for lessons and it was my fault for thinking you could be civil enough to hold a fucking conversation with your _elder_." Malfoy jerks up off of the ground, brushing himself off and snorting, "I am your elder, Malfoy. Not only that I'm twice the wizard you'll ever fucking be, so it would be wise to shut up and listen." He levels his wand with Malfoy's nose from several feet away, snarling: "Expecto Patronum."

Orion, in the seconds before the light bursts from the tip of his wand, thinks about his family. His mother, what he can remember about her. His father, laughing in the pictures with James and Lily. Holly, when she throws her head back and laughs. Moony, the look in his eyes when he unlocks the door haggard and hurting after a full moon and Orion is there with a cuppa. The shrew explodes out of his wand and Malfoy stumbles backward, watching as the animal swirls through the air, illuminating the grass around them. The reflection dances off the lake and Orion smiles, watching as the animal dives toward Malfoy before disappearing. Sweat beads down the side of his face, but he's still grinning when Malfoy speaks.

"What was that?"  
  
"My Patronus, a shrew."

"Are they always shrews?" Orion laughs and helps Malfoy up, retrieving the younger boy's wand and pressing it into his good hand. The tension dissipates quickly.

"No, they're not. Your full body Patronus is based on who you are." He punctuates his statement by prodding a finger into Malfoy's chest. "The shrew, Sorex Araneus, called a lament in groups. Sensitive, creative, and paranoid: they have sharp eyes and know how to get what they want no matter who or what stands in their way." He grins, but there's something sad behind it "Fundamentally, that's me. Shall we see who you are, Malfoy? That is if you can even produce a full-body Patronus."

Hours later, when Orion is back in his bed and shivering from the light rain, he wonders if he's given too much of who he is away. Moony always warns him about that sort of thing: it's what made his father such a target when he was in school. Perhaps, though, it doesn't matter. His last name makes him a target, as does his mess of black hair and piercing eyes.

Maybe it does all come back down to his name. But does a name make a man? Is he truly like his father and his uncle Regulus? He shakes these thoughts off, rolls over, and falls into a tumultuous sleep.


	6. .06 you're bleeding the magic out.

Orion learns some things over the next few weeks. He learns that Holly knows he's sneaking out once a week to tutor Malfoy in something that Malfoy just can't seem to grasp. He learns that Holly has not only gotten detention for punching Crabbe, but for hexing Parkinson. He also learns that Malfoy is the only Slytherin in the third year to hate Defense Against the Dark Arts, but he learns that the hard way.

Not the hard way for him, of course, but for _Malfoy_.

It's easier for the younger boy to avoid him, they're in different years after all, but he can't avoid Orion in the common room. Especially when he doesn't care to check who's around before he starts running his mouth. Orion had just snuck Holly in, draping her in one of his Slytherin robes so that nobody would realize his very Hufflepuff sister was in their common room.

"Have you seen some of the shit he wears?" Draco laughs through a drink of stolen and spiked pumpkin juice, "I know he comes from poverty, but could he be any more stereotypical? I mean, come on, it's 1993 and he looks like he's wearing my Grandmum's robes from 1764!" The room howls with laughter, whether fake or real, and Orion's blood boils beneath the surface of his skin. He's standing in the shadow, hands shaking. Holly sneaks her hand out from underneath the robe and grabs Orion's elbow, shuffling closer so she can speak without being heard.

"He's been doing this since the lesson with the boggart, you know. Not even just in here, but all 'round the school." She leans her face against his bicep.

Orion's eyebrows raise until they disappear under his shaggy hair, and his glasses slip down his nose when he spares Holly a glance. "I'm afraid I don't know, Holly-Dolly. Care to enlighten me?" She sighs, and shakes her head. Orion shakes his arm, effectively jarring her, and she speaks.

"He does it to get a rise out of me, I think, Ori. Because he knows that we're close." She bites her lip, "I think he's trying to piss you off." He snorts, watching as Malfoy brags among

"So he tries to get a rise out of you so that he can get a rise out of me?"

"Yes, that is what I'm saying."

"Stellar, a real sleuth. Perhaps the prat just likes to be the center of attention amongst shitty people." Holly sighs overdramatically, in the way she does when she knows she's right and Orion is wrong. She's been doing that since they were young. Even though she knows her older God-brother is almost actively ignoring what she's saying, she continues to mutter to him - partly because she likes having information over him and partly to distract him from Malfoy still running his mouth.

"I don't care what you think or how he acts, but Malfoy looks up to you, Ori. You're powerful, older, and a Pureblood from a famous lineage of Witches and Wizards. He'd be daft not to, and that's why he's taken you up on your offer." She gives him a pointed look.

Orion steps back, his back hitting the wall as he looks over at Holly. "You know about that?" He's paler than normal, hands shaking as he clenches them. Holly grins, but reaches out to calm him.

"Please, I've known about that since the day you guys decided to do it. Things can't slip past Holly Lupin, you know."

"Yeah, except Care of Magical Creatures."

She elbows Orion and, for a moment, Malfoy's words are lost in the laughter of the two of them. When they settle down, they seem to have drawn his attention. And the attention of the rest of the common room. "Didn't know you had any house friends, Black. What are you lot laughing at?" Malfoy calls, smirking. He knows, just as Orion does, that neither of them wants their tutoring sessions aired out in the open. Neither will say anything, but Malfoy still eggs the situation on although he knows that Orion can't leave it be.

"Just the noises your Mum made last night." Orion fires back, smirking as he throws one arm over Holly's shoulder. He steps forward, bringing them into the dim, green light of the common room. He's sure that nobody will call Holly out as a non-Slytherin, especially with the murderous grin on his face. "Surprised you didn't hear her, she _was_ rather loud." Malfoy's jaw clenches and Orion's grin spreads. It's so easy to get under the boy's skin, to rile him up. The fourteen-year-old thinks it's not fair, how naive and easily angered the thirteen-year-old is. Malfoy stands, setting his glass into Blaise's hand.

"Shut your mouth about my Mum, Black." Malfoy draws his wand, Orion already has his in his hand. The room is filled with magic and all of the furniture is cleared away, people tumbling with the wood and fabric. Even Holly is pushed to the other side of the room, tucked safely in a corner. The familiar warmth begins to crawl over Orion's skin, making him shiver. It dances just below the surface, wrapping around his bones and reminding him of the power he holds.

"Shut your mouth about Lupin, then." Orion tilts his head and walks slowly in a circle around Malfoy, "Or I'll shut it for you in a duel, you fucking _prat_." He keeps the unhinged, malicious grin on his face. He wants Malfoy to be scared, if only to get the boy to stop talking about his caretaker in the way that he was.

"Orion, no!" Holly calls from the other side of the room. She's pushed back into the crowd with a jerk of Orion's head, and he continues to taunt Malfoy like she hadn't even spoken.

"Here? Now?" Malfoy taunts, grinning back at his cronies. He twirls his wand in his hand, shedding the outer layers of his cloak. Orion rolls up the sleeves on his dress shirt, loosening his tie. "You're takin' the biscuit, mate."

"Where else, Malfoy? If I beat your ass, I better do it in front of the people that suck on your dick the most." Malfoy rears back and snarls. "Knock you down a few pegs, mate." Orion bares his teeth and can feel his magic rearing up for a fight, his legs shaking with the urge to drop down to all fours.

"Stupefy!"

The light is quick and, with a lazy flick of Orion's wand, dissipates before it even makes it halfway between the two boys. "Stupefy is how you start a duel, Malfoy? My, my, my, you have lost your touch since last year."

"Relashio!" Orion calls, voice booming. He can perform all of these spells without speaking but it's not fair - not in a duel. Malfoy's hands open and his wand clatters to the floor against his will. Before he can think, or move, Orion is casting another spell, advancing on him. "Impedimenta! Incendio!" Malfoy's movements are sluggish and his trousers spark before lighting on fire. He can't get down to put them out because he's still struggling to move like the air is thicker around him. Orion only lets it burn for a few seconds - just enough to scorch the other boy's leg hair before he puts it out and casts the final spell. "Levicorpus!"

Malfoy yelps and is left hanging in the middle of the common room, fingers just inches away from his wand. "I'll kill you, Black." His snarl is almost comical upside down, and Orion laughs.

"Oh, will you?" Orion kneels in front of Malfoy, the common room silent except for the squid outside the glass and the crackling of a fire, "Do you know the counterspell, Malfoy? I'll help you out, here's your wand. If you can get yourself down, we'll continue the duel. If you can't, then you shut the fuck up about my God-father and sister or this will happen again and again. I will fucking _crush_ you, mate." Orion steps back and watches Malfoy struggle. His face is red and Orion knows the younger boy doesn't know the counterspell. Hell, Orion shouldn't know the spell itself in the first place, let alone the counter-spell. Moony has an extensive library at home that Orion has made a habit of sneaking into after a nightmare, studying up on spells that his God-father would be disappointed in him for knowing.

After a few minutes, Orion casts the counterspell "Liberacorpus. There, now you know. Next time I hear you run your mouth, I won't use magic to hurt you."


	7. .07 don't want to scare you off,

When everyone is woken up Orion isn't wearing a shirt. Someone scares Salem off of his chest and heaves him out of his bed. He shuffles into the common room with his duvet wrapped around him, rubbing the sleep from his eyes. He'd spent nearly two hours with Malfoy by the lake practicing finding happy memories to use against dementors, and then only just fallen asleep when Snape charmed the lights on.

Alyssa Carrow finds him just as he sits down in one of the plush, green armchairs by the low fire. She looks similar to he does - hair a mess, a blanket pulled around her shoulders. "Have you heard?"

"No, I've just woken." He's surprised that she's talking to him, but like Alyssa he doesn't have many friends. Orion supposes that she just wants to gossip, and he's a prime target for it. He glances over his shoulder and sees her older sisters, Hestia and Flora, chattering away by one of the windows.  
  
"The Fat Lady's been ripped to shreds! Potter and his friends found her after the Feast, her portrait hanging in tatters. I don't think they've found her yet, but Peeves knew something. It must have been bad because they're moving us to the Great Hall." Orion leans back, eyebrows rising above his glasses. He snorts when Alyssa shrinks back into herself.

"All of us? Are they mad? They do know how many students are at Hogwarts, don't they?" A hand claws over his shoulder, jerking him back to look at Snape, who is towering above him. If Snape hates Potter and Holly, then he loathes Orion. "Professor."

"I assure you, Black, we are aware of how many students are at Hogwarts. I do apologize for breaking up your gossip session, but I request your presence in my office." Orion nods, following him through the Common Room milling with Slytherins, out to the dungeons, and then through the potions classroom. He's shaking, but is it from the cold of the dungeon floor on his bare feet or from fear? Snape lets the door shut, stalking around his desk before he gestures for Orion to sit. He temples his hands and snarls, mouth twisted like he's eaten something rotten. "I want to know how you did it."

"I'm sorry?"  
  
"Tell me how you did it, Black."

"I haven't any idea what you're talking about, Professor." Orion, somewhere in the back of his mind, wishes he'd brought his wand. He knows he doesn't need it, but it's comforting. "I didn't do anything." Could he be talking about the duel with Malfoy? That was weeks ago. Orion was sure that he'd gotten off without a bollocking for that one; no teachers had even mentioned it in the weeks that followed so why would Snape bring it up now?

"How did you smuggle your father into Hogwarts without us knowing?"

Orion's blood grows cold, his stomach dropping. "I didn't."

"Don't be ridiculous, Black. We already know you have."

"I haven't! I wouldn't! I swear!" Orion lets the blanket drop from his shoulders as he pushes back and falls out of his chair. Snape draws his wand, hand shaking, "Professor?" Fear claws up through his stomach to his throat and his magic surges underneath his skin, making him dizzy.

"Don't think the Minister didn't tell the staff about your outburst, Black. We all know how you feel about your father and his imprisonment. He's obviously gotten to you and you've let him into Hogwarts tonight." Snape bears down upon him and the floor is cold against his bare back. Orion is shaking - his father? Here, in the castle? - and Snape flicks his wand without saying an incantation.

The feeling when the spell hits is indescribable. Orion feels like he's falling and flying all at once, his arms flailing out to catch himself. He can feel the cold floor beneath him, his body shivering, but he can't see it. He can see the summer home, the flowers in the fields around Moony's cottage, the pictures he's storing under his bed. He can hear Holly laughing, watching her paint as he's tucked into a corner with a cuppa. Moony's there, he's teaching Orion how to make Wolfsbane, the exact way to measure and boil and stir. The full moon is blossoming in the muggy summer air and the house is dark and empty. A flower wilts to his left. Wolves howl outside. Orion shivers and, very suddenly, he's back on the floor and his chest is burning like he's drowning.

Snape is only standing above him for a second longer before a burst of light throws him away, and then Moony is hauling Orion to his feet. Dumbledore is there, wand extended, fire in his eyes. He doesn't spare a glance toward the boy, instead heading past Moony and Orion straight to Professor Snape. "Moony?" He mutters, clutching to his God-father's arms, "What's happenin'?" His magic makes his fingers go numb - well, maybe that's whatever spell Snape had used on him.

Moony doesn't answer, instead he just shushes Orion; he's aware enough to know that he's being dragged half-naked and cold through empty corridors until they reach an imposing, ugly gargoyle. It spins in Orion's vision and the boy feels... Well, he feels like he's going to hurl. Moony spits out the name of some Muggle sweet and the wall opens up into a long, ornate room covered with rich purples, royal blues, and pops of yellow. Moony deposits Orion into a plush chair in front of a desk. He's still shivering and a headache is beginning to bloom across his forehead, temple to temple. Another blanket settles over him and Moony takes the seat next to him, looking terse.

"I think this is the only time I've wished for you to be in any other house." Orion looks at the older man who is looking at his hands, "Professor Snape lacks... Tact, to say the least. The tact that other Head of Houses would have had... Should have had." Moony shakes his head, and runs a hand over his beard.

"Is it true?" Orion's voice is scratchy, still worn by the leftover spell in his system, "Is - was - my Dad in the castle?" He can't help but feel... Let down, hope, sadness, and joy at the same time. The hodge-podge of feelings starts in his stomach and sloshes around like a bad potion. His magic curls into something foul and angry. A plant on the desk in front of him surges upward, and then wilts until it's dropping over its pot. "He was here?" Moony sighs and covers his face with his hands, eyeing the plant warily.

"Yes, Sirius was in the castle tonight." _My Dad was in the Castle._ Orion thinks. "But!" Moony holds up a finger, looking more worn and more haggard than his God-son had seen him in a long time, "He attempted to gain entrance to Gryffindor Tower and, when the Fat Lady would not let him in, he attacked her. Sirius Black is not to be trifled with, Orion, whether he is or not he is your father. When we were in school he had the utmost respect for this castle, Gryffindor, and the Fat Lady. The man I knew is gone."

"That doesn't mean he's a bad man, Moony." Orion leans forward and his vision spins.

"But it means he's unpredictable." Moony's hand is warm on Orion's still frigid shoulder and it tightens for emphasis, "He desecrated the one place he felt safe, Orion. Destroyed the Fat Lady's home. I don't know who he has become in Azkaban."

"What's going to happen now, then? Will I be sent away from Hogwarts?" He's certainly not feeling better and he's still faintly seeing double, but leans away from the hand on his shoulder anyway. Moony opens his mouth to answer, brows furrowed. Before he can speak, another voice cuts him off.

"Unless that is what you were hoping for, Mister Black, I am afraid you will be very disappointed." Dumbledore appears, as if by silent apparition, on the other side of the desk. He's carrying Orion's Slytherin sleep clothes that are given at the beginning of each year, promptly passing them to Orion. "I see no reason that you cannot continue your studies this year. You are in your fourth year, correct?"

He's lethargically pulling on the t-shirt and flannel pants, nodding when Moony interrupts, standing. "Headmaster, I don't think that's the best idea-"

"Nonsense, Remus!" Dumbledore sits down, gesturing for Moony and Orion to sit again, "I don't foresee young Mister Black being in any danger this year. Well, perhaps the dementors will give him some grief, but everyone knows how I feel about that."

"Sirius Black is dangerous-"

"-And the boy's father-"

"-Headmaster! That makes it worse-"

"-I doubt Sirius Black would harm-"

"-You saw what he did to those Muggles-"

"-Muggles are not the same as your son-"

"I want to stay!" Orion's voice echoes around the high ceilings, startling the arguing professors. Moony's face is red and his hands are shaking, but Dumbledore looks unswayed. "I want to stay in classes. I don't want to leave." His chest is heaving, almost like it's post-Quidditch, and plant pot rattles on its saucer in front of him. "He's my father, it's my life, and I don't believe in any of that rubbish: not the finger, not the Prophet, not the Minister."

When Moony speaks, he looks sad, "Ori..."

"Remus, I implore you to allow young Orion to continue his schooling."

In the end, Orion ends up sleeping in the Great Hall with the rest of the students. He's sure that Moony and Professor Dumbledore argue into the morning hours on what to do with him, but he's too preoccupied thinking about his father in the castle. So close, so so close, but still so far away.


	8. .08 don't want to know your name.

The Quidditch game is supposed to go off without a hitch, but nothing has been doing that so far this year so why would that? Actually, nothing in Harry Potter's life has gone off without something bad happening so it was daft to expect that this would. Orion watches as Potter tumbles toward the earth and something in his gut twists. Is he about to watch one of his only connections to his father die on the Quidditch field? Is he about to watch the Chosen One be defeated by a fucking dementor? He jerks out of his seat and leaps over the fence separating spectators from athletes.

He's on the field before anyone can stop him, rain cutting through his Slytherin sweater easily. The dementors are swarming the players who are landing, and even Madame Hooch is having trouble managing everything that's happening. The cloud of fear begins to descend upon Orion and he dodges out of the way of two long, spindly hands that reach out to grab him. He slips and lands hard on his shoulder but scrambles to his feet to make it to where Potter is laying on the ground.

Just before he can cast the spell, arm strong and wand pointed to a mass of dementors with Potter behind his back, Orion watches as Malfoy stumbles onto the field with his wand out, as well.

The shrew bursts from the end of Orion's wand, jetting straight for the thickest mass of dark cloaks. It cuts through them and they shriek, moving to find a place safe from the ferocious little animal. Orion watches another animal wind through the track of his own Patronus, a small and mighty rook helping to drive the dementors back. He can feel the world tilting at the edges as he pushes himself, and then the headmaster is there and the dementors are gone. His chest is heaving when Dumbledore appears at his side and pats his shoulder, winking at him.

"Go join your house, take Mister Malfoy with you." Orion crosses the field and grabs Draco by the hood of his jacket, jerking him toward the throng of students rushing from the field in a panic. "Can't believe that prat Diggory caught the snitch." He hisses at the younger boy, "No respect for the other players, none! Fifth-year doesn't even care that Potter almost died."

"Let go of me!" Draco jerks from Orion's grasp. "Jesus, Black." The two boys easily slip in with the other Slytherin students heading back to their common room. "Did you see what I did?" Orion tries not to notice Draco is preening, fishing for a compliment.

"I did."

"Full-bodied. Bet even you weren't that quick to produce one."

Draco Malfoy is a smug son of a bitch, Orion knows this. They've been meeting to study nearly every night for weeks now, but the younger boy can still get under Orion's skin like sliding a knife through butter. Orion levels Draco with a dangerous look as they troop over the grounds to the castle.

"Don't be so quick to be proud, Malfoy. I've been working on this spell since I was eleven, producing full-bodied shrews since I was twelve. This magic isn't even taught at Hogwarts, so just because you're thirteen and producing a full-bodied rook doesn't mean shit. Come offit." On instinct, Orion looks behind him. They're nearly at the back of the pack of students, but that's not what catches his eye.

The big, black dog on the edge of the forest catches his eye.

Something about it is familiar, like Moony's home. It's like the dog knows Orion is looking at it, disappearing into the forest. "Hey, Black, what are you looking at?" Draco is tugging on his sleeve.

"Shove off, Malfoy." He pushes Malfoy off of him without looking back.

Orion begins to head toward the forest. Draco follows, calling his first name in a low voice. "Hey, Orion, you don't wanna go in there. I served detention my first year, we almost bloody died-"

Orion shoves at Draco again. "Go back to the common room, have a cuppa, and get your knickers out of a wad. I'll be fine." Orion leaves Draco standing there, crossing the grass quickly. He disappears into the woods, sound immediately becoming muffled around him. Thick magic hangs in the air, and Orion shivers. He walks for a little bit, and sees a few Thestrals grazing through the trees. Where had that dog gone? Why was he following a strange, stray dog into the Forbidden Forest?

If he had been paying attention, Orion would have heard the dog crashing through the underbrush. The dog leaps on him, both of them crashing to the ground. On instinct, he throws a punch, the dog yelping as it connects.

He's on his feet, wand pointed at the shaggy dog but quivering. "Who are you?" His voice shakes. "Are you an animagus? Are you just a dog? Am I just talking to a dog?" Orion's voice rises to a hysterical pitch. "Great! My Dad breaks into the castle, the dementors keep trying to kill me, and now I'm talking to a _fucking_ dog!"

The dog licks at his hand, bringing him back down. There's something there, in the dog's eyes, and Orion is just about to understand, to know what's happening when Holly crashes into the small clearing that they're standing in. It only takes Orion to look back at Holly for the dog to disappear.

"They're doing a bed check, Ori, we have to get back."

They were, indeed, doing bed checks but the two trouble-makers make it back into their common rooms with no problems. Orion lays in bed that night trying to figure out why he knows that dog. Of course, the Grim comes to mind but... Well, he's never heard of someone being able to _punch_ the Grim. Besides, there's something familiar about the mangy thing. It's like Orion's seen it in another life, but he can't figure out where that would be. Perhaps there was a stray around his Dad's house that looked like that? It doesn't really matter, anyway, strays never hang around Hogwarts for long anyways.

Orion's life returns to normal, almost, after he sees the dog. Draco stops showing up to the lake at night and, sometimes when Orion feels lonely in the midnight hour on the shore, he's able to see a glowing rook flitting around in the distance. He never sends a shrew to answer, though, not sure if Draco knows that he's sitting by the lake, too.

Is it weird to miss the stupid little third year? Is it idiotic? They aren't even friends and, in fact, still try to hex each other on a weekly basis. Orion would say that Draco hates him if he didn't see the stupid fucking rook at night.

He tries not to think about Draco as he runs his errands in Hogsmeade. He leaves his guitar with the keeper of Dervish and Banges, buys mandrake leaves from Dogweed and Deathcap, and he buys a new pack of quills from Scrivenshaft's Quill Shop. That's really all he can do with the little gold he has - well, that and purchase a joke gift for Holly from Zonko's Joke Shop. She's stuck at the castle, sick with a cold, and he knows she likes the joke gifts more than the real gifts.

Orion's on his way back to the castle, taking in the cold, fresh air when Harry Potter appears out of thin air. Potter, who is not allowed to be in Hogsmeade, steps out of nothing and lands a solid punch onto Orion's jaw. "Oh, what the fuck?" He hits the ground hard on the same shoulder that he hit when on the Quidditch field protecting Potter. The pain radiates through his chest, winding him.

"Your bastard father," The boy seethes, his eyes dark with anger as he stands above Orion, "Your bastard father killed my parents." Orion tries to get up, but Harry lands a kick to his ribs and he collapses to the snow again, coughing. "He's the reason they're _dead_."

Ron and Hermione join the group, the latter pulling on Potter's arm to get him away from Orion, who is struggling to his feet with an arm wrapped around his ribs. "Harry, this won't make you feel better."

"My Dad didn't kill your family, Potter! Mind your manners." Orion stands, glad that Hermione and Ron are holding the younger boy back. "And watch your bloody mouth, mate."

"I'm not your mate!" Harry whips his wand out, shouting a spell before anyone can blink. Orion swipes a hand in front of himself, the spell deflecting into the snow. He pulls his own wand, casting _everte statum_ without ever moving his lips. He watches the Golden Trio fly back and hears them cry out in pain. Orion stalks forward to where they're laying and levels his wand at Harry Potter's chest. He's shaking with rage, and the snow around his feet melts in a circle as the grass begins to wind around his ankles. "I don't care what you thought you heard, or who told it to you, Potter. If you say that about my father again I will not hesitate to make sure you regret being _born_." He shakes his ankles free of the tightening grass and turns back toward the castle, rubbing at his ribs.

"You're just like him, Orion. You're just like him, fucking crazy!" Potter's voice carries as Orion hikes his way back to the castle, buzzing and smarting and feeling pissed off. He wants to do worse than cast them back on their asses. He wants to make Potter hurt like he hurts inside. Orion knows it's not anger, he knows it's hurt festering deep inside of him, but he can't help it. When he makes it back to the dungeons, he drops his gift for Holly with one of her third-year friends and then goes to collapse in his own bed. Hopefully, he can get some sleep.


	9. .09 you'll never know a single thing about me,

Orion and Potter collide several times before Christmas rolls around. They never duel outright, but the tension between them seems to warm Malfoy back up from the frigid bitch he had been. By the time Christmas dinner is taking place, it's awkward. There are only so many students still at Hogwarts on the holiday break, so Orion skips dinner altogether. Several of Holly's friends have stayed over break, so he's not worried about leaving her alone.

If there's one thing the Golden Trio is doing right it's the way they're treating Holly. They're not giving her snide looks as they pass or telling everyone she's crazy. He'd have more of an issue with the trio if that was happening. Draco had taken to attacking Potter in the common room rather than Moony, as well. It's neither here nor there, as Orion barely spends enough time in the common room to be aware of the Slytherin gossip anymore.

As Christmas arrives, and then passes, Orion isolates himself more and more. He wants to have a whole different life, and if it were possible he'd do it in a heartbeat. He spends many frigid nights walking out onto the frozen Black Lake, magicking holes in the ice so that he can play with the giant squid and merfolk that live there. Maybe if he was a squib he wouldn't have these problems - like confiding in Holly what had happened that afternoon in Hogsmeade and having her crack under the pressure and tell her father.

Moony calls him to his office one day after he and Potter get into another shoving match in the hallway. Orion collapses into a chair and realizes that Moony looks... He looks tired. Guilt blooms in his veins because he realizes he's the reason for that tired look.

"Ori, I have to tell you something." Moony sits on his desk, a foot away from his god-son. "Harry Potter received a broom in the post, a Firebolt. The permanent faculty, and I do as well, believe that it was sent to him by your father." Well, _that's_ not what Orion thought the meeting was about.

But it's the cherry on top of his life, really. Orion scoffs and rolls his eyes, looking away from Moony. He wants to not care, he _really_ wants to not care about it. But he's fourteen and he does care, dammit. He cares that Harry fucking Potter got a Christmas present but Orion can't even get a bloody letter. "Ori, Harry knows that we were friends in school, and he knows that your father-"

"-Betrayed _Prongs_?" Orion cuts off Moony with hard eyes, standing. The chair falls over with the force of it and something inside of him snaps. "Betrayed _Lily_? Killed the parents of his God-son?"

"Orion..."

"You didn't see him in there, Moony! You didn't!" Orion turns his back on his God-father for the first time... Well, ever. He tries to breathe, but can't seem to do so. It's like his lungs are filling with lead, dragging him down to a place he's never been before. "You didn't see how sick he looked. How _dead_ he looked. It's so easy to forget that he's a person, it seems. You're rather good at it, in fact." Orion's voice takes a bitter turn. "I don't care that Potter got a bloody broom. What's this really about, then? That can't be the reason you've called me into your office."

"I have been giving Harry extra lessons." Moony finally confesses. His shoulders relax like it had been on weight on his back. "He's been coming into my office after hours so that I can teach him how to properly ward a dementor off."

"I don't care!" Orion fights for control, clenching his fists into the material of his robe. He can feel the tickle in the back of his throat, the overwhelming signal that he's about to be choking on vines and flowers. He swallows them down to speak. "I don't care if you've been teaching him. I don't care if my Dad wants to try and bloody kill him. I don't care about _anything_ anymore!" Orion can't swallow down the flowers anymore, so he storms out of the office, ignoring Moony's desperate calls that there's more to discuss. A bloom nearly chokes him but he crushes the flower between his teeth and sets his shoulders. Orion runs into Potter on the way, sparing the younger boy no more than a shove on the shoulder and a coughed up, bloody cypress flower on the floor.

Orion has never felt such burning pain before. It crawls up his stomach and wraps around his throat, transforming from anger into something more dangerous. He finds his way to the edge of the lake, just as the sun is setting. It's cold outside and he's not wearing his coat, but he doesn't care.

Orion, with a flick of his wand, sends his shrew spinning through the air. He's surprised when the shrew explodes from the end of his wand because he thought that surely his sour mood would have spoiled such a thing. It doesn't, though, and the animal calms him down as he sits down and watches it tumble through the air. It settles on his shoulder, and then shoots back into the air.

A few minutes later, the shrew is roughhousing with a glowing rook. Orion smiles, only one side of his mouth quirking up, and allows the blond to join him at the shore. The rook fades, and a few seconds later, so does the shrew. "I heard about Potter's broom."

Orion only snorts as a response, not taking his eyes off of the trees in the distance. Malfoy sighs and pockets his wand, Orion putting his away as well.

"Is it true, then? Did your Dad send him a wicked good broom for Christmas?"

"Happy Christmas to me." Orion cheers, his voice weak even though he wants it to be strong. He leans back, allowing himself to fall into the padding of the snow and spits out another blood red flower beside him. He's surprised when Malfoy does the same - well, without the flower. "Yeah, 'spose it is. Lupin wouldn't have called me in for a meeting if it wasn't." They lay in silence for a moment, and it strikes Orion how disconnected he feels from his life, even though the snow is beginning to burn against his back and he can hear Malfoy breathing beside him.

He's always felt that way, of course, but with all of the rubbish with his father... He's feeling less and less like a member of the Black family. (And the Lupin family, as well. That bothers him more than it should. Holly had heard about his multiple tassels with Potter and had taken to pulling away from him slowly but surely.)

"Have you seen Holly 'round?" Orion asks Malfoy, finally getting over himself and biting the bullet. He's her God-brother, he shouldn't have to ask Draco Malfoy where she's been hanging around, but he had a feeling that Malfoy was the one she was sneaking out to see. If that's true, he'll know.

"Everyone heard about the incident with Potter. You threatened to kill him. I'm sure she doesn't want to hang around a mad man."

"Bollocks." Orion scoffs and sits up again as the anger surges back forward over the calm he had managed to grasp. He pushes himself to his feet and shakes the snow out of his hair. "Right crock of shit, that is." Orion begins to stalk toward the castle when Malfoy's voice stops him.

"The Ministry has approved The Kiss, you know!" Malfoy's voice carries high and cold over the snow. "When they find him on the grounds, they're giving him The Kiss."

Orion walks on, pretending like he didn't hear Malfoy. Somewhere inside of himself, he hopes they find his Dad on the grounds, but that part of himself is squashed by the need to have a father.


	10. 1.0 until it's far too late.

Orion has heard about his father's second break-in, but doesn't put much stock into it. It was Ron Weasley who had claimed it and, though he knew the Weasley family was a good family, he doesn't believe it for a second. Why would his father break into the tower and go for Ron Weasley? Harry was right there. Besides, Ron and his whole family are still pissed at Orion so it's likely a plot to get him kicked out.

He finds himself not caring much, and not talking to many people either. Apparently the Golden Trio had a tiff because Holly has spent the past few weeks fluttering around Hermione and comforting the girl. Orion does feel sorry for her - she spends a lot of her time alone now. He'd tried to reach out to Granger once or twice but she snubbed him easily. It's no skin off of his back, really.

Malfoy has also stopped going out to the lake at night, and also stopped being civil with Orion. They had dueled several times since that night on the lake where The Kiss was mentioned, but each time Orion had won. He knows what spells Malfoy's going to use, and the dueling is beginning to get boring. It had made his heart race at some point, but now it makes him feel even more disconnected from life.

Of course, there is always the full moon to look forward to for Orion. He has an alarm set on his wand for every night at eleven, even though the nightly potions haven't started yet. Orion is always in charge of reminding Holly and Moony to take their potions, and he was one of the only of the trio that could remember that it was indeed a nightly thing for a week before the full moon. Just because he hasn't spoken Holly or Moony in a while doesn't mean he's going to fuck off and not help them out.

Orion makes nightly trips to the potion's closet, where Snape is brewing the potion. It makes Orion nervous for Snape to be doing it. He knows that the professor hates his family and one slip, one morsel of sugar into the potion, and everything would be taken away. Holly, and Moony too, wouldn't be able to control themselves when the full moon reached its peak.

Each night, though, he feels like he's being followed. He's tried waiting around corners for someone to appear, to pretend to fall and hurt himself. Hell, Orion has tried randomly deciding to go a different way and spinning on his heel, but he can never catch anyone in the act of following him.

Well, except Scabbers. But he never feels like he's being followed until after he's discovered Scabbers. Weasley's rat seems to be fond of him, and he's not sure how he feels about it. Sometimes he thinks about giving it a right kick, and sending it sailing but then the guilt sets in. He supposes he can set Salem on it, but she has so much fun in the owlery chasing those mice that he doesn't want to spoil her appetite. Orion allows the rat to tag along and doesn't mind much. In fact, he's rather glad to have the rat for company when he's out on the pitch practicing runs early in the morning and Salem doesn't want to get out of his warm bed.

He's gotten Hooch's approval, so it doesn't matter much that he's out before curfew is over. Plus, he's one of the few - three, assumably - students that can produce a full body Patronus and it's his father that's tormenting the castle. He figures they're not too worried about him.

Why should they be? Maybe they think allowing him to be so vulnerable will smoke out Sirius Black and they'll be able to catch him and put him back in Azkaban. He'd rather get kicked off of the Quidditch team than to allow them to take his father into custody because of him.

Orion runs play after play, making sure that he never loses the quaffle. If he drops it, he makes himself run a lap carrying two of them. He shoots through all three posts from high, low, straight on. He kicks it through. Orion tries to chuck it through from the ground, even if he knows that it won't work. It burns through his anger, though, heaving the quaffle through the air.

Basically, he puts himself through the wringer. Orion's body is sore all of the time and he's constantly tired. His grades don't tank, but his mental health certainly does. Orion swears that some mornings that Scabbers disappears and the big, black dog appears to watch him. Sometimes he thinks it looks sad, but if he looks at the dog for too long there's tickling on the back of his neck. Orion thinks the feeling is weird but doesn't care much to figure out why or what he's missing. He's decided the dog surely isn't the Grim, though he would welcome it if it was.

It's the day before the big match when Orion looked up from his breakfast to find Harry Potter sitting across from him. He's surprised - not because inter-house eating isn't allowed, but because Potter blames Orion for his parent's deaths.

It's fine - Orion would hate himself too if he believed a word of the gossip that Hogwarts procures. Still, he lets a smirk slide onto his face as he continues to eat his breakfast. "Potter." He drawls. "To what do I owe the absolute pleasure?" He lazily takes the letter that Salem had brought him tucking it into his pocket. Probably an advert, he's not too worried about it.

"The match tomorrow."

"I'm not throwing the game if that's what you're asking."

"I'm not worried about losing, Black." Harry snaps, still grinning. Orion is stunned for a moment, aware of how much they look alike at that moment. "Lupin told me that you can cast a fully-formed Patronus."

"I can." He smirks at the boy, shaking off the shock of the morning. "Lupin told me he's been working with you. I wonder if you can do it, or if there are no happy memories in that thick skull of yours." Harry's face falls into something like a growl, but Orion just sips his pumpkin juice and stares at the younger boy. Potter always looks so familiar.

"Regardless of my skill or memories, I was just letting you know that winning the Cup won't be a memory you can use to make that shrew appear. Mostly because you'll be _losing_ tomorrow." Potter rapts one knuckle on the table and stands, turning to head back to his own house.

"Oi, Potter!" Orion stands, brushing his hands off and fixing his robe. Harry looks at him, waiting, and he grins at the younger boy. "Do be on the lookout for my father. Just because he's not visited me yet doesn't mean that he's given up on visiting _you_." He relishes, in some regard, to the whispers that follow him out of the Great Hall. He heads back down to the pitch, picking up his broom on the way. He's wearing Muggle clothing under his robe, so he merely discards that to the side before mounting his broom and kicking off from the ground.

His Nimbus 2000 is nice and smooth. It doesn't jerk or kick, and he's roaring around the pitch at high speeds in seconds. Orion feels free, flying for the sake to fly. For a second, just a brief second, he takes his hands off of the broom and lets them coast out to the sides. He closes his eyes and takes a deep breath, trying to forget that he's hurtling through the air faster than he should be.

The air around him changes, and Orion shudders back to life. He falls forward on his broom and nearly tips downward into a throng of trees. He's left the pitch and is flying over the grounds - over the Forbidden Forest. His broom wobbles, if only for a moment, as his attention wavers. He spots a familiar figure - no, two.

His broom slows and Orion dips closer to the tree line before he settles somewhere in the leaves. One foot off of the broom, onto a limb, and Orion begins a slow and silent descent. He hedges his broom in the tree and settles on a branch just a few feet above Moony and Holly. He squints, but barely breathes so that he can hear them over the rushing of his heart.

Orion stills when he hears his name whispered from girl to father. "I don't think we should be ignoring him. Ori, I mean. It's not right." Several vines filled with leaves wrap around his wrists where his hands are clutching onto the branches. The bark is cutting into his palms, and the vines are twisting around his arms until they capture his shoulders in their grasp.

"A lot of the things we're forced to do aren't right, darling." He watches as Moony rubs Holly's shoulder. "I didn't tell you to ignore him."

"You know I'm damn bad at lying, Dad."

"Language."

A rustle from the bushes draws the attention of everyone, Orion leaning forward and relying on his trust of the vines holding him to keep his body from tumbling out of three. Something surges in his stomach when a dog - that black dog that's been following him around - appears from the bushes. Moony speaks again. "You're always so dramatic, Padfoot." He wraps an arm around Holly, but doesn't take a defensive position.

Orion's breath catches in his throat, and he reels himself back into the leaves of the tree when the dog stands back onto its hind legs and then seems to shake out into a human man. The man is pale and sickly thin and covered in tattoos. His hair is greasy, and shaggy hanging in his face. He looks... Familiar. Orion leans forward again, squinting in the bright light of approaching noon. The man raises his head, takes a deep breath, and nearly makes eye contact with the boy in the tree.

The vines wrap around Orion's neck and he has to stretch to keep them out of his mouth, because it's his father standing there. He watches as Moony steps forward and wraps Sirius in a hug. Holly does too after Moony and Sirius let go of each other. The vines constrict and petunias bloom around him. The scent wafts around him and nearly makes him choke.

"It's good to see you, Padfoot." She's basically whispering, and betrayal strikes Orion to his core. Did his father visit everyone except him?

"Good to see you too, Holly-Dolly."

Orion can feel the sweat beginning to trickle down the side of his face. His father's voice is nearly the same as to how he remembered it to be. It's rough and haggard, but there's a jovialness that lines it... And that's familiar. It's what reminds him of his childhood, in the scant amount of years Orion had gotten with his father before everything happened. The scant amount of years that he had gotten with his mother, Marlene.

Orion doesn't want to hear anything more from Moony, Holly, or his father. He begins to make his way back up the tree, shaking off the vines and petunias; he makes sure to go slowly so that he doesn't disturb the foliage too much. The last thing that he needs is the trio below him to know he's there. It's hard to get his broom up in the air, but that's mostly because his knees are shaking too much to properly kick-off. Orion stumbles, and nearly crashes to the ground, but makes it in the air.

He nearly snaps his broom as he shoves it back in the shed. He wants to disappear, to lose himself in something until the Quidditch game. In fact, he does just that. Orion goes back to his room and promptly falls asleep fully clothed until the morning when his wand begins to vibrate on his bedside. It's time for quidditch.


	11. 1.1 crawling up your skin,

Orion doesn't respond when Malfoy tries to talk to him in the changing rooms. In fact, he doesn't do much besides change. He straps on his gear, rolling his neck and preparing himself. He doesn't talk much to Blaise or Rivers when they want to discuss strategy. He knows he's good. He knows he'll do his job. He doesn't have to rely on Zabini or Rivers to help him out with that.

The Slytherin team is booed when they make it out onto the field, but that always happens, especially when they're facing Gryffindor. Orion just takes his place on the field and mounts his broom, scowling in the general direction of where the faculty is sitting. Sure, he had received the letter that morning from Moony, but he's not going to respond. The most he's going to do is brood angrily and ignore his family. Orion figures it's a fair trade off.

Both of them, Moony and Holly, had sat back while he was accused and harassed for the idea that he was allowing his father into the castle. It was them and they let him take the fall for it. He grits his teeth and soars into the air as soon as the whistle sounds, immediately taking control of one of the quaffles. He tucks it under his arms and makes way toward Gryffindor's keeper - Oliver Wood. Orion lets his anger fuel him as he pushes himself harder and harder.

He's light on his broom, dodging players and bludgers alike. Orion makes the first goal of the game and takes only a brief second to mimic casting a Patronus charm in Harry's direction out of spite before he's on his way to try and get control of the quaffle again. He scores three more times before he takes a bludger to the torso and crashes to the ground. Orion's lucky - he was only about ten feet up but it still smarts angrily. It had knocked the wind out of him and left a hollow aching in his chest. He had been hit on that same damn shoulder that has been giving him issues.

Orion's ears are still ringing when he kicks off again, and he purposefully makes sharp turns into the paths of bludgers for the rest of the quarter. It gains his team at least three penalty shots and, if the bludger he kicks toward Johnson strikes her in the shoulder and gets the other team a penalty shot, so be it. Really, with his father on the loose and everyone blaming him for it, he has nothing to lose. His reputation is already tarnished, and everyone is convinced he's just as evil as some of his Slytherin predecessors. Why not play into the stereotype? Why not _give_ people something to gossip about?

By the end of the game, he knows they're going to lose. Orion has stopped gloating and started flying harder and faster than he ever has. He scores three more goals on his own and assists Blaise and Rivers with four more.

The cheers go up around the stadium and Orion punches his broom and it vibrates angrily at him. There's no doubt that Potter's caught the snitch - one look at the red and gold flooding the ground below him confirms that. He grinds his teeth as he hovers in the air, back aching from the hits he's taken in the game.

"Potter got to it before I could." Malfoy hovers next to him and looks ashamed. "I'm sorry."

"Doesn't matter much, Malfoy." Orion rolls his shoulders back, rubbing at his sore ribs. "Nothing as awful as a cocky Gryffindor, though." He slaps Malfoy's shoulder and heads toward the ground. Holly is there as he dismounts his broom and allows it to be collected by Hooch's assistants. Holly looks apologetic, but unable to not be happy for her friends. Orion doesn't blame her.

_Much._

"Ori! I think that was the best you've played all season." He scowls down at her and shoves by, coming face to face with a confused Moony who had seen how he brushed off Holly. Orion tries to shake the heavy hand off of his shoulder, but it tightens until it's almost painful, holding Orion in place. It makes pure hatred boil in his gut, and Moony's hand barely loosens when electricity crackles over the teen's skin and shocks him.

"What do you think you're doing, Orion?"

"Get the hell off of me." Orion's voice is cold, and it surprises Moony enough that Orion can begin to move through the crowd. Malfoy's on his tail, and the older boy knows it, but it doesn't matter. He has to get away - away from the red and gold cheering, away from Harry Potter's smug face, away from the two people he was supposed to be able to trust. He's panicking, a hot and sickly feeling crawling up his chest until he can't breathe. (The ribs he's probably cracked don't help this feeling.) By the time Orion sheds his gear and strips down to just his trousers and a tank top, he's practically sprinting. He doesn't care that he's leaving his gear strewn in his wake, he just has to get away.

He spares one look behind him as he runs, but nobody is chasing him. Orion runs into the Forbidden Forest, crashing through the underbrush without caring if it scratches him. He stops only when he trips over a log and scrapes up his shins - but even then he just lays curled up on the ground and breathes hard for a while. He wonders if that dog - his dad - is somewhere in the forest. The thought pushes him to his feet, and he realizes he's crying. Orion wipes at his face harshly and winces when the salt water from his tears hits the several, small cuts from the branches he'd run through.

"Are you out there?" His voice is harsh and echoes around the trees as he screams. "Can you hear me?" Orion tries not to sob and wipes more tears on the back of his bare, bruised arm. "Why are you doing this? What's the point? Why won't you come and visit _me_?" He collapses to his knees, fisting his hands in his hair. He feels like he's going insane, and maybe he is.

Orion is tired of being unwanted.

"Don't you love me?" He whimpers.


	12. 1.2 potions, pleasing medicines

Orion, no matter how angry he is at his family, is not a monster. Well, maybe he's a monster but he likes to think that he's an ethical monster. He still meets Holly and walks her toward the Whomping Willow, shaking out to four feet. He presses against the special spot with his snout and then rises to two feet again, walking silently beside Holly to the Shrieking Shack through the tunnel.

Neither attempts to speak, and Orion stews under the surface. He keeps his fists shoved deep into the pockets of his jeans, wishing he had that sense to roll down the sleeves of his flannel. Muggles, he thinks as he walks, sometimes got things right. Like grunge music and punk clothing.

Orion is shaken from his reverie when he hears muffled screaming from the shack above them. He stops Holly in her tracks with a heavy hand on her elbow and draws his wand, heading up into the shack first. Holly says nothing but clings to his back as they creep toward the room. They step through the door and he aims his wand at the first thing that moves.

That thing just happens to be Harry Potter. Behind Potter are Hermione and Ron, cowering on a dirty mattress in the corner of the room. Orion's eyes drop to the blood absolutely pouring from the redhead's leg but he gives no outward indication that he's processed it. Orion aims his wand at them for just a moment, a brief moment, before he catches movement to his left out of the corner of his eye. He pushes Holly toward Hermione and slides to move in front of the third years - none of which seem to have their wands. He steels his resolve and readies himself to face whatever threat he has to.

Orion is almost surprised to see his father standing there, eyes dark and sickly looking. He sucks in a hard breath, and follows the deathly thin arm to the hand; his father is holding three wands loosely in his grip. Orion has never once been afraid of his father, but at that moment he thinks he is. That has to be the sick feeling growing in his gut.

"He's an animagus," Potter cuts in strongly, voice strained. Orion feels bad, feels ugly because he can hear the grief behind the younger boy's words. Orion feels guilty because he knows. He's known about it, ever since he was a child. Ever since he underwent the ritual himself, at only twelve years old. "An unregistered animagus. That's how he was able to get into the school without being seen."

"I don't want to kill you, Harry." His father's voice is soft, and Orion realizes with a start that Sirius isn't looking at him. He's looking past his own son to Harry Potter once more. The thought makes Orion's mouth dry up.

"Not bloody likely!" Ron squalls from behind Orion, "You nearly took my leg off." Sirius, if only for a moment, looks apologetic. Orion shifts on his feet, knuckles white around his wand. He always swore by his father's innocence, but he has to look at the facts. Sirius had broken into campus multiple times, and now he has three third years cornered and wandless in the Shrieking Shack. It doesn't look good, and Orion swallows thickly. He feels dizzy and betrayed.

Before Orion can muster up a semblance of speech, or draw his father's eyes, Holly speaks. "Sirius, what're you doing?"

The silence is suffocating him. Everyone knows, now, that Holly is at least on friendly terms with Orion's father. Not that he had ever doubted it, really, because he had seen him hug the girl with his own eyes. Finally, Orion cocks his head, narrowing his eyes at his father. "Yeah, Sirius, what're you doing?" His father finally looks at him, and Orion's throat swells. Sirius takes one step toward him, but Orion just takes one step back and aims his wand at his father's chest. He doesn't miss the hurt look that crosses the scraggly man's face. "Oh, come offit." He snarls, shoulders tense as he bears his teeth. "Don't need to pretend anymore, do you? I defended you." He hisses, "For years. Come to find out it's all true!"

"It's not." Sirius emphasizes, taking another step toward Orion.

"Don't," Orion warns at the same time Harry calls Sirius a liar. "Don't make another bloody move."

"It's not true. I would never do that."

"Oh, right, and I should believe you now? I defended you, even when Moony believed the rubbish the Prophet printed. Even when the Minister said he'd rather see me an orphan than have you out of Azkaban. I nearly tossed a coffee table on the Minister of Magic defending you." Orion can feel his magic flaring and his anger getting out of control. It whorls under his skin and raises his body temperature by several degrees. He takes a deep breath to tries to ground himself before everything around him becomes too much and he loses control. "And then you go and break into the castle to go after Harry Potter just like they said you would. Makes me look like a right fool, 'innit? Come to find out you're meeting with Holly and Moony in the Forbidden Forest. Then you go and nearly take Weasley's leg off. Doesn't all wrap up in a little box with a tiny bow, now, does it? Life's really handed me some hard lines, hasn't it?" Sirius looks crestfallen, but all Orion can think about is getting the wands back, and maybe calling for Moony. (He spares the thought - Moony should be there by now. The moon was on its way into the sky, midnight approaching. Either way, it wouldn't help because Sirius probably had Moony in his pocket.)

"You've got it all wrong." Sirius sounds genuine, but Orion spares a glance over his shoulder. Holly is still clinging to Hermione, but she's crying. He knows it's because of what he said, but maybe it's the horrified look Potter is giving her from where he's putting pressure onto Ron's wounds. The red-haired boy is holding a squirming rat. Orion turns back to his father and allows the magic to surge until his arm is nearly vibrating with it. "I wasn't going after Weasley," Sirius continues, "I was going after the rat."

Orion scoffs, and the first of the tears drip from his eyes as he gives his head a shake. "Of everything I said, you're focused on the bloody _rat_?" He shakes his head and startles when the door flies open once more, revealing Snape. Everything happens in a flash, then. Snape disarms Sirius, the wands of the third years arcing through the air toward the professor. Orion's ears are filled with the sounds of rushing blood, and he panics.

Before Snape can cast another spell, Orion finds himself aiming his wand at the towering, darkly-clad man's back. He doesn't call out his charm, but it's just as powerful as if he had. The bolt of energy hits Snape square, sending him sprawling toward a decrepit table and then through it. Orion sets his jaw and aims his wand at his father again.

"Orion," Hermione breaks the silence with a shaky voice, "You've just knocked out a teacher!"

"Serves him right." He snarls back, never taking his eyes off of his father. His father who looks, well, proud. "He got what he deserves. That'll be you, Sirius, if you don't take to talking soon." It hurts to use his father's given name, and it hurts his father too. Good, Orion thinks, that's what I was going for. "What's so fucking special about the rat?"

"It's not a rat."

Moony's voice knocks him off balance mentally and physically. This is mostly because Orion can't decide just who to aim his wand at - his father, who is surely the bigger threat - or his God-father, who is gazing at him with a hardened expression. Moony stands in the doorway, nearly leering as he gazes at them. Orion shuffles on his feet, moving subtly back toward the four younger teenagers whom he is trying to protect.

"Oh, yeah?" Orion challenges, voice rising. "And I should trust you, Remus? Sneaking off into the forest to meet with Sirius, letting him into the castle?" His voice breaks, as his wand flitters between Sirius and Moony. "Letting your daughter know all about it, but letting the poor bloke you've been housing take all the blame?"

Moony crosses the room and takes Sirius in a hug, clapping the shorter man on the shoulders before facing the children. He ignores everything that Orion said. Hermione cuts in. "You're a werewolf." She bolsters, "You and Holly. I figured it out ages ago, but I thought that you were good. I didn't think you were a danger to the school."

"You were wrong." Ron chimes in bitterly. "He's in cahoots with Black."

"Hermione, you always have been one of the smartest witches in your year. Remind me a lot of Lily, if I'm honest." Moony looks fondly at his shoes as he shuffles.

"Don't talk about my mother!" Harry's voice echoes through the room and Orion thinks of his own mother - and her family. He wonders what she would have done if she were still alive when his father was incarcerated and when he'd escaped. Part of him is glad that she's dead so that she doesn't have to see Sirius and Moony betraying some of her oldest friends.

Something crashes into Orion's back and he barely wrestles Potter back into Hermione and Holly's arms before the boy tries to take on two fully grown men the muggle way. Orion notes that Potter's covered in blood - Ron's blood. Orion aims his wand at the boy's bleeding leg and mutters a quick 'episkey!' hoping that it will do some good before turning back to the threats in the room.

"You lot have got it all wrong." Sirius makes a move toward the group, but Moony holds him back. Orion reckons he's got that look in his eyes, the one that Moony always says reminds him of his old schoolmates. "I swear."

Orion sneers. "Got it wrong, have we? Why break into the castle then? That bloody rat's been out and about on its own for ages."

"Has not!" Ron struggles to hold the rat in place behind Orion. "He's been missing for ages, he has."

"No, he's been wandering the castle at night. Following me like a dog." Orion panics, briefly, at the looks the men in front of him give. They're both pale - well, paler than normal. "Every night he patters right along behind me. Maybe your rat just doesn't like you, Ron."

"It's true." Potter backs Orion up. "I've seen him; been following Black 'round, too. I was worried he was letting his father in the castle, but I guess I was wrong."

"You're a right mug if you thought I was the asshole letting him in, Potter." Orion tosses over his shoulder. His eyes never leave the duo standing in front of him, but he can feel the anger radiating off of him in waves. The floorboards creak underneath him as he struggles to control himself.

"His father?" Sirius looks like something has dawned on him very quickly, and his eyes flicker to Moony. "You haven't told them?"

"I've told Holly. The right time hasn't come to tell the others." Moony's voice is soft and guilt-ridden. Orion recognizes it because it's the same voice he uses when something bad has happened to Holly during a full moon.

But before Orion can get properly annoyed, or digest what his father has said, Ron cries out. The rat, it seems, has managed to scramble out of his grasp by biting the boy rather hard on the thumb. Orion catches sight of it as it runs between his legs, toward a hole in the wall. Sirius leaps for it, knocking Moony to the floor. If the rat is that important, Orion figures he might as well hold it hostage to figure out what the hell is happening.

On instinct, he verbally casts his spell. "Immobulus!" The rat freezes and Sirius snatches it up. Orion takes several steps forward and presses the tip of his wand into his father's back. Sirius freezes and eyes his son. Orion snarls at him, nearly shaking out of his shoes with anger.

"The rat, now." He hisses.

"Orion..." Sirius starts.

"Let us prove to you that it's not a rat." Moony, as always, speaks evenly. He pushes himself up from the floor and, after Orion makes no move to remove his wand from Sirius' neck, takes the frozen rat from Sirius, casting the counter charm. Immediately the ragged little thing begins squirming once more, screaming like someone had chopped off its tail. Moony looks to Orion like he's asking permission and, with a start, he realizes he's holding his own father at wand-point. It's like ice water has been dumped down his spine, but he can't seem to make himself remove the wand. His father hasn't moved and, for the first time since Orion entered the ruddy little shack, he's the focus of the man's attention.

Orion looks to Potter, Ron, Hermione, and Holly for guidance. Holly had dropped to her knees and tied off Ron's leg with her belt at some point, taking Potter's jacket to staunch the blood flow. She doesn't meet his eyes, and neither does Ron. He looks pale, and as if he might vomit. (Orion won't blame him if he does.)

"Prove it." Harry says, voice strong. He jerks his chin toward Orion. "If you're wrong, I'm sure Black won't have any trouble immobilizing the both of you and waking Snape up. I've seen him duel. He's good. Better than either of you, I'd wager." Orion nods at Harry, and a mutual understanding passes through them. Whatever problems they've had with each other are over now. They have an alliance - at the very least a temporary truce.

Orion takes several measured steps back until he lowers his wand. Hermione grasps onto his arm, and Harry moves to stand pressed to his other side. There's a tense moment where Sirius and Moony share a look, but then Moony hands over his wand. "You were always better at forcing him out. Go on, then, you know the magic better than me."

"I haven't used a wand in ages, Moony."

"Come on, Pads. It's like riding a bicycle."

"Someone do it!" Orion shouts. The floorboards groan and several vines sprout from his hairline. "Or I'll kill the bloody thing!"

Sirius raises the wand and Moony drops the rat like it has bitten him. Orion watches in horror as the rat shudders on the ground, and then raises into a horrible, hunched over man. There's a beat of silence, and then the man swivels and lays eyes on the group of children. Orion is too stunned to raise his wand again, but then the man falls upon Harry and nearly knocks him to the ground.

"Peter, no!" Moony and Sirius shout.

"Please, Harry, oh you look so much like your mother. Please, tell them to spare me! They're going to kill me!" Even his voice is mousy, much like the man himself. Peter, he had been called. His eyes are yellow, and everything about him is dirty and gnarled. Hermione, who had been knocked to the ground as well, scrambles backward with Orion.

"Don't talk about my mother!" Harry lands a solid kick to Peter's knees, dropping him. It's then that Peter swivels and falls upon Orion, who struggles against him. The man smells just like one would imagine a rat would smell like, and his hands tighten painfully on Orion's shoulders.

"Please, you wouldn't let them hurt me, would you? I'm your faithful companion! I followed you at night to make sure you were _safe_." Orion pushes Peter to the side and scrambles to his feet, sweeping Harry and Hermione behind him toward Ron and Holly. Orion looks to the adults, but they look absolutely mad. "Please, Orion!"

He flinches when Peter reaches out again and sweeps his right hand in Peter's direction, palm open. "Brachiabindo!" He bellows, invisible cords binding Peter's arms and legs together. Peter is screaming, eyes wide and begging for someone to undo the spell. "Langlock." Orion barely whispers it, but the jinx takes effect. Peter's screams are muffled, then, his tongue glued to the roof of his mouth. Orion's heartbeat shudders in his ears.

"My rat turned into a man." Ron chokes out a few minutes later. "My rat, Scabbers, he turned into a man. He attacked you, Harry after he turned into a man." Harry makes an off-kilter noise, and Orion looks back at his father. He's more confused than ever, if that's even possible, and the squirming man at his feet just makes it all worse.

"Was that wandless magic?" Sirius asks, wide-eyed. He hasn't stopped gazing at Orion, and it was starting to make the boy's skin crawl. He still feels sick.

"Someone should be explaining this, now." Orion finally says, bending to pocket his wand. "I think it's about time we have things sorted out."


	13. 1.3 to circumvent your brain.

Orion doesn't say much as the group moves out of the Shrieking Shack and a safe distance away from the willow. He helps carry Ron, taking most of the boy's weight from his father on the other side. When they finally settle him against the roof, the older boy busies himself with trying to help Ron.

Orion straightens Ron's leg, ignoring the cries, and mutters that the ankle is broken under his breath. He spares a glance to his father, who at least has the decency to look ashamed. "You should be fine, Ron."

"Fine? My ankle is broken! Oh, I feel like I'm going to be sick." Orion pushes Ron to lean back. The boy is looking rather pale. "Is there anything you can do? Or anything that Lupin can do?"

"I can ask Moony-"

"I can do it. I've been goin' on just fine without you or Remus." Orion cuts Sirius off harshly, fishing his wand out of his back pocket. "I've been taking extra charms lessons with Flitwick. I should be able to bandage this and get a splint on it until we can get you to the hospital wing, Ron." He takes a deep breath, eyes flickering between Ron's pale face and his bloody leg. "Ferula!" The energy that he's been holding back he puts into the spell and it almost... Recoils against him. Orion falls backward on his ass. He watches as the air around Ron's leg shimmers, and then the bandages begin to wind around his leg, and it seems to stiffen. "Does it feel better?"

"Loads." Ron sighs, propped up on his elbows. Hermione joins them, laying a hand on Sirius' shoulder. Orion bristles at the casual acquaintanceship she shows to him. "Hey, 'Mione."

She glances at Orion and then jerks her head toward where Moony is tending to Snape. "He should be okay. That's what Professor Lupin said, at least. You're lucky for that, Orion."

He snorts and pushes to his feet. "Frankly, I don't give a rat's arse. He's a shite professor and a shite person." Orion looks to where Peter is still magically bound, a few feet away from Ron. "There's still some explaining that needs to be done, Sirius. How Peter is alive, for one." He spares his father a look and cocks one eyebrow. Sirius looks guilty and hurt, but nods.

The group of them end up standing around Ron, who's nodding off against the tree. Orion crosses his arms and tries not to look too put out when Holly tucks herself under Moony's arms across from him. Orion's left to stand between Hermione and Harry, feeling utterly cut off from his family. They stand in relative silence, except for Peter's muffled screaming. Orion grinds his jaw before the tension inside of him snaps. "Well?"

"I saw the rat in a photograph Fudge showed to me while he was visiting me about a month before I broke out." Sirius's voice is low, and his face contorts in something that looks like anger. Orion hasn't seen his father in so long, that he isn't sure what emotions look like on the older man's face. "I suppose he cut off his own finger and left it on the street before scampering off into the gutter. He blew up the road, and we had been fighting before so when the ministry showed up it was only natural that they arrested me." Orion flares up, and his eyebrows jump in surprise. He was right, he had been right to defend his father! Everything else doesn't seem to matter in that moment, because he was right!

"I knew you hadn't done it!" Orion lets a grin slip at his father, but then his face falls. He spares a glance toward Harry. The younger boy's jaw is jumping, and there's a storm brewing behind his eyes. "What about the Potters, then?"

"Pettigrew." Moony cut in, his eyes warily on Orion, flickering hesitantly to Harry. "I wasn't sure until earlier this year, not until I saw Peter on the map."

"Map?" Orion questions, but Harry just shakes his head and knocks his elbow into Orion's. They'll talk about it later.

"We had decided to make Peter the secret-keeper, and when he was presumed dead everyone assumed that Sirius had gone mad, gotten the secret out of him, and... Well..." Moony shrugs, as if that explains everything. "There was no evidence to the contrary."

"Well there wasn't exactly an investigation, now, was there?" Orion snarks, nearly barking at his God-father. He notices the hesitation and watches Moony and his father interchangeably. "There's more."

"Of course there's more." Harry mumbles, "It never stops with this lot, does it?"

"I think you're a part of this lot, Harry." Hermione cuts a look to Peter - Wormtail, Orion supposes - who is squirming and still trying to speak through Orion's charm. "I think he wants to say something."

"I don't particularly care for what he has to say." Orion shrugs, "I want the truth, the whole story." Holly flinches when he says this as if she knows. Her eyes fall to the ground, guilt heavy on her shoulders. Something like betrayal burns in Orion's throat. "It seems like Harry and I have been left in the dark, whilst Holly knows what's happening. That doesn't really seem fair. What's gone on, then?"

"If it has to do with my father, I should know." Harry surges forward, but Orion wraps an arm around the shorter boy's shoulders and jerks him back. "What? Aren't you pissed off?"

"Attacking a professor isn't going to get you anything but trouble." Orion hisses slowly, jerking his head toward Snape. "Let alone getting found out attacking a professor who's the father of a student, and has been cavorting with an escaped convict."

"He's right," Hermione wraps her cold hand around Orion's wrist, leaning around him to see Harry. "We'll already have enough to deal with when Snape wakes up."

"Then someone should explain what we're missing!" Harry bellows, face reddening as he stares down Moony and Orion's father. "I'm frankly sick of being left in the dark, and I reckon that's a bit how Orion's feeling right now." The older boy snorts, and eyes his father darkly.

"You could say that."

"It's not something that should be discussed this close to the full moon." Moony sighs, shoulders drooping. "In the morning."

"Unfortunately," A new voice cuts in, low and nasally, "None of you will be on this campus come morning." The group whirls to see Snape standing over Peter, sporting a bloody nose and an awful bruise under one of his eyes. Orion feels... Proud, almost, that he's the reason that they're there. The professor disarms everyone with several swift flicks of his wand, and Orion ducks out of the way when Snape tries to hit him with a body-binding spell.

Orion doesn't need his wand, and he knows that. Still, it's sure more comfortable to cast with a wand in his hand. Snape rounds on him, and Orion blocks his spells blow-for-blow. He sends a few back himself, but none of them land. A wand also helps his accuracy, he supposes. Snape steps out of the way for one of his spells, and it lands squarely on Peter.

Orion has to push that to the back of his mind as he puts all of his energy into one final spell. It lands, and Snape collapses back against the roots of the tree next to Ron. Harry tosses Orion his wand, which he then uses to trap Peter to the ground before he can run. He's not sure he's actually using a spell but his magic pushes to the surface of his skin and the grass winds its way up Peter's body until he can't move - no matter how much he's struggling to get away.

"Orion, you wouldn't hurt me, would you?"

"I bloody well might," He gets up in Peter's face then, shaking with rage, "If you don't shut your damn mouth." He wants to swing - swing the Muggle way - but someone pulls him away. It's Hermione.

"Something's wrong with Holly," She rushes out before Orion or Peter can cut her off, "And Lupin."

Orion's mind goes into hyperdrive, wondering what could be wrong with them. He spots his father tending to Moony several feet away, and Holly is crouched next to them. "Holly?" He calls, making his way over, "Holly, is everything alright?" His hands come up to cup her shoulders, and he can feel her trembling beneath his palms. No matter how angry he is with her - and he is rather angry with her - he can't stand to see her in pain.

"No." Holly moans. "Something's wrong. The potion - I took it, all week. Dad did too." She convulses, and for a second her eyes roll back in her head. Orion catches her before she can pitch backward, and looks up toward Moony. "I'm losing myself, Ori. I can feel it happening. Something's wrong."

"Have you taken your potion?" Sirius is begging Moony, trying to keep the taller man from falling into a fit. "Did it taste alright?"

Orion leaves Holly as her face begins to elongate, and nearly has to tackle his father away from Moony. "Get back!" He shoves Sirius back toward Harry, Hemione, and Ron. "Something is wrong, Dad. Moony and Holly, they never act like this." He turns back to face his family just as their bones begin to break, sickening cracks echoing in the night. "The potion always works. I checked it every night, I did. It was brewing correctly. Snape is a bitch, but I don't think he'd endanger a student like this."

Peter laughs from behind them. "It only takes a little bit of sugar, then, doesn't it?" His voice carries down to Orion, who has several realizations at once. The rat - it followed him every night as he went to check on the potion. He had led Peter directly to the wolfsbane. It wouldn't be hard for a rat to sneak into the kitchens and drop a grain of sugar into the potion. It'd be rather easy, actually.

Rage surges within Orion once more, and he whirls to face Peter. Everyone standing between him and his target becomes blurs, he can't even see their faces anymore. Orion aims his wand, and his hand is shaking. He takes several steps up the hill until Sirius catches him around the waist. "You've done this!"

"Of course I have!"

"Crucio!" Orion's voice leaves his chest in a burst of anger, and the red bolt soars and lands on its target. Peter crumples to the ground, his legs still trapped in the grass, and Orion hopes it hurts. He hopes it burns, just like the transformation happening behind him. The spell only breaks when Sirius heaves him back, looking horrified at his own son.

Orion probably looks beastly, snarling and gasping for breath. He's aware he just used one of the Unforgivables, but he doesn't care. He wants Peter to hurt. He wants Peter to pay. "You can't do this, Orion. Don't go down this road."

"What? I'd be living up to the family name, wouldn't I? Doing what they accuse you of, then?"

Their argument is cut short when Orion feels the hot breath on his neck, and Sirius looks like he's going to faint. Sharp teeth brush against Orion's skin, and then he's ducking forward, dropping his wand, and standing back up on four legs instead of two.


	14. 1.4 oh, oh, oh, lonely little life.

He sinks his teeth into Holly's arm and jerks his head away from Sirius. She yowls and follows his snarling retreat. Orion's always wished he was something a bit larger than a wolfdog because fighting off two snarling werewolves? That was much harder than fighting off one. And Holly is big, bigger than she used to be because she's approaching adulthood. He's never had to fight her when she's feral - only play fight her when she's of her mind in this form. She swipes for him, but he ducks out of the way and rounds on Moony, who had come up behind him.

Orion knows it's worthless. One of them will overpower him and get him, and he'll have to suffer monthly with them as well. He just has to lead them away from the others. Away from his father, and his newfound friends. That's the least he can do before he's carted off to rot in Azkaban for giving Peter a taste of his own medicine.

Orion snaps his jaws at Moony, who snarls in response. There's a brief moment of fear, that Moony is going to kill him before he can lead the werewolves away, but then a black dog leaps on the bigger werewolf.

Of course. Orion has forgotten his father was an animagus. It's strange, but they work together rather well. Orion watches his father's back, and Sirius watches his son's back. They lead the werewolves away with minimal damage - a cut or a bruise, maybe.

Something catches Moony's eyes - a deer, maybe - and he takes off into the woods. Sirius spares Orion a look, and Orion nods. He's much bigger than his father - wolfdog trumps regular dog he supposes - but with less skill. Orion watches as his father chases after Moony.

He turns back to Holly, who's still snarling at him. They lunge at the same time, but he's heavier than her thin frame, and they topple back into the brush. They fight as they tumble down the hill, and Orion is careful to make sure that she doesn't manage to sink her teeth into him.

When they come to a stop, Holly lashes out with her back foot and Orion yelps a choked off and awful sound. He stumbles back and she deems him too weak to be any fun and turns into the woods. Orion wants to chase her because his father is out there going toe to toe with Moony, but he can't. The world spins around him, several moons richoteting from side to side in the sky.

Orion can feel where her claws have split the skin of his paunch and is just thankful that she hasn't run back toward the clearing where Harry, Hermione, Ron, and Snape are. It takes everything in Orion to rise to two legs, but he manages it somehow.

There's a lot of blood on him.

It seems like it's coming from everywhere, like it's never-ending. Orion chokes on some of it, and it dribbles out of his mouth. He stumbles through the woods, hoping to find anyone, anything. If he finds the centaurs, maybe they'll help... They've helped before, when the spiders attacked him whilst he was looking for Holly. If he can just find the centaurs... He stumbles deeper into the woods, calling out every few feet in a weak voice broken by bloody coughs.

Orion finds dementors instead.

They crowd him, each taking their turn breathing in his very essence. Orion chokes and falls to his knees. Something's wrong - he can't cast a Patronus. He can't even raise his hand.

The world tilts out from underneath him and Orion collapses onto his side, choking on his own blood.


	15. 1.5 and nobody believes you now,

Orion wakes up in the hospital wing, groggily trying to conceptualize the whispering he is hearing. It sounds familiar but he can't place it until he pushes himself into a sitting position. His chest burns, but it feels much better than when the wound was fresh and he was stumbling through the woods. He spies Harry and Hermione huddling at the end of Ron's bed, glancing at him every few seconds.

He swings his legs over the edge of the bed and stumbles to his feet. "Where are you going?" He grows bitter when they share a look, but he hobbles closer to them anyway. "Where's my Dad? Holly, Moony?"

Harry catches Orion, and he lets himself lean on the younger boy, and follows the hand that's pointing to where Holly and Moony are asleep further into the hospital wing. "My Dad?"

Hermione hesitates. "He's... They found him last night. It's not looking good, they're going to execute him-"

"Like hell they are!" Orion shouts, but then wheezes, coughing into his fist. There's no blood when he removes his hand, so that's good. He's taken several hits to his left shoulder and the large, ragged wounds on his chest don't do him an favors in breathing. "I suppose the two of you have a plan? Is Weasley not going with you?"

"Ron's ankle is rather roughed up," Harry explains, "Madame said that he needs several bone growth potions before he can put weight on it again. You shouldn't be out of bed, either, she said. You're not healed." Orion pushes off of Harry and wraps an arm around his middle, groaning. His legs don't feel as weak as when he first stood up, but he knows he's still going to need several rounds of healing for the gouges left by Holly's claws to heal.

"Well, you need a third, don't you?" Orion smirks, tilting his head back to look down on Hermione. She flushes and looks over to Ron, who's slumbering without a care in the world. "Care to let me join the Golden Trio for a night? Knowing you lot, Sod's Law will get to you without the proper number of people."

Harry and Hermione seem to communicate with just a look before she pulls out a golden chain from underneath her shirt. "Fine, you can come with us. You cannot tell anyone about this. It's called a Time-Turner." She raises to her toes to drape the chain around Orion's neck, and then allows Harry to duck into the chain. "That's what Dumbledore was talking about - he wants us to go back and change the way it turned out."

"We're time traveling?" Orion's eyebrows shoot up, and he looks down his nose at Hermione. Someone had left his glasses on whilst he was asleep, so they're rather greasy, but not unbearable. "I thought that was all just rumor, or a scary story to tell your kids." He watches Hermione twist the hourglass on the chain three times. A strange vibrating begins to crawl up his legs and Orion crumples into Harry again. Orion shudders and his eyes close before the ground beneath him begins to twist. Just when he thinks he's going to be sick he ducks out from underneath the chain and turns in a small circle. The morning light that he had been standing in has changed to early afternoon. "I suppose it's not, then." His voice is rough and it breaks several times in the small sentence.

"Come on, we have to go." Hermione grabs Orion's elbow and tugs him along. He groans as his muscles stretch for the first time in hours, but he finds it easy to keep up. He's the tallest of the group - one of his strides is nearly two of Hermione's.

Harry and Hermione are chattering back and forth as the trio make their way through the castle and then down the grounds. Hermione has warned him that they cannot be seen by... Well, by themselves. It would probably tear a hole in their brains, or something. He doesn't care. He figures that if they somehow mess up and see themselves that they would already know... Right? If his past-self sees his future -self... Orion gets lost in the paradox of it all so when the duo in front of him takes a sharp right into the woods he nearly misses it. Harry falls back to help him manage the rough terrain, explaining as they go.

"Dumbledore told us that we can save two lives tonight. I think that Buckbeak has to be the second life that we save. Malfoy's a right git, and provoked him." Orion grunts, but agrees. He crouches in the trees, watching Buckbeak as he lays in Hagrid's pumpkin patch. He'd met the creature only a handful of times, but even he knew that Buckbeak was a gentle creature - when given respect. Malfoy clearly hadn't done that and it's not surprising.

"What's the plan, then, Potter?" Orion whispers, trying to keep his voice even. "Sneak up and steal the bird? Fat lot of good that'll do." Harry shrugs and looks past Orion to Hermione. "So no plan."

"Not particularly," Harry speaks slowly, as if he's trying to come up with one before he finishes his sentence. "We're in there, you know. In the hut. Can't exactly go running up and take Buckbeak, can we?"

Orion grimaces and rubs at his ribs once more. Through the window, he can see Harry, Hermione, and Ron in a heated conversation with one another, and with Hagrid. Something dawns on him, and he smirks. "Well, you're inside but I'm not. I'm currently in the Slytherin common room, reading up on my topic for my Muggle Studies essay."

"You have to wait until we leave." Hermione tugs him back into the trees before he can make a break for Buckbeak. "We're going to sneak out soon and then you can take Buckbeak."

"You should wait for Fudge and Macnair to see him." Harry points out from Orion's left. "If you take him before they see him I'm sure that they'll blame Hagrid." The boys share a look, but Orion concedes to Harry. He has a point, and the group settles deeper into the nettles at the edge of the forest. Several of them prick at Orion's skin, but his chest is aching dully and feels much worse than small cuts. He watches as the trio from the past creeps out of the hut and disappears over the hill just as the execution parade steps up to Hagrid's hut.

"Is Dumbledore distracting them?" Orion peers through the trees and then stumbles out when Hermione shoves him from behind. He takes several crouched steps toward the great bird, who watches him curiously, and realizes that the headmaster is distracting Fudge, the Committee member, and Macnair. Orion sighs and makes his way toward Buckbeak. The bird huffs and Orion stops. He licks his lips and spares a glance over his shoulder before bending at the waist. For some reason, he's nervous as if Buckbeak will decide that he's not worthy or something of the sort. It wouldn't surprise him.

Luckily, Buckbeak bends his head and allows Orion to approach. He makes quick work untying the great, big bird and leading him back to Harry and Hermione. The quad makes their way away from Hagrid's hut, and everyone but Buckbeak jumps when they hear the thud of the ax. "Seems we've got the first life saved." Orion quips when they're far enough away to talk freely. He leans heavily against Buckbeak, his torso aching and throbbing.

"Are you okay, Orion?" Hermione eyes Buckbeak warily, but still makes her way to the boy's side. "You look awfully pale."

"I'm fine, Hermione. I always look pale, you know." Buckbeak turns to look at him as if he knows Orion is lying. "What's next? Where do we go from here?" Harry and Hermione share another look like neither really knows what they're doing. Orion wonders if they wing everything like this particular adventure - he remembers hearing the stories about Harry's grand adventures in the boy's first and second year and everything seemed really planned out. Orion wonders how they've gotten anything done if it's just been like this the whole time. "No plan?"

"By now we're in the Willow," Hermione pushes her hair out of her face and ties it back. "We can't really go running in there; even if you go in, you can't possibly get out without seeing your past self coming in with Holly. If you do, I'm sure that would be too confusing for Sirius and us, and we'd know."

"We're going to know regardless, 'Mione," Harry interjects, shifting back and forth nervously. "We should go wait by the Whomping Willow, so we can see when we come out. We can talk about what we're going to do, then."

Harry leads the way, taking Buckbeak's lead from Orion. The taller boy heaves himself onto the bird's back and settles along it. His aching chest is pressed against Buckbeak's muscled neck, but it doesn't hurt more than walking does. He fades in and out of consciousness, purely exhausted until the group stops just on the crest of a hill. It's strange he's so tired because he thinks he's slept most of the day. "Won't we be noticed up here?" Orion mumbles groggily, dismounting when Buckbeak lays down.

"I don't know," Hermione frets, running her fingers nervously through one of Buckbeak's wings, "Did you notice us?"

"I was a bit preoccupied with trying to kill Peter, actually." Orion shrugs nonchalantly, and the memory of his voice screaming an unforgivable curse lingers over the three teenagers for a moment. "And then attempting to reign in Holly." He watches himself walk next to said girl and wonders what he'd be thinking if his past-self were to see his current-self. It's strange to watch himself transform - one moment it's Orion in his Muggle clothing, and then there's a large, gray and white wolfdog in his place. It makes current-Orion sick to watch, already knowing what past-Orion is going to go through. The memory tastes bad on his tongue.

"Hagrid's gone." Harry has been watching the opposite side of the hill, not paying attention to the great, blundering tree. "I'm sure he's headed for the castle to tell us what's happened to Buckbeak." The sun begins to set, and Orion looks past Harry to focus on the shifting colors. "There will be two werewolves running amok soon, we should get to a safe place."

"What are you on about, mate?" Orion asks, sharing a look with Hermione. Harry seems to be in a trance, worrying his lip between his teeth. "Thought we were here to save my Dad."

"Well, we can't do that if we're dead, can we?" Harry snaps, pushing to his feet roughly. Buckbeak follows suit, forcing Orion to stand as well. "You're already hurt. If Lupin or Holly come this way, there's no way you can fight them off. Hermione and I certainly can't; Buckbeak might have been able to if there was only one werewolf, but there's two." He begins to walk briskly towards the hut, not checking to make sure the rest of the group is following him. (Orion has a sneaking suspicion that he knows that they are, though.) "We can hide out in here until Sirius is captured. I suppose he's somewhere near Ravenclaw tower - up high and out of the way. We'll be safe in here but close enough that we can take Buckbeak to search for him when the time comes."

He opens the door to Hagrid's hut like he's not breaking into a professor's dwelling, and Orion gives him props. He's always thought Gryffindors being ballsy was horseshit, but Harry seems to prove that it's not. Orion collapses into a chair as Hermione wrangles Buckbeak into the small hut before securing the door behind them. "So what happened to Peter, then?" Orion finally asks the question that's been weighing on his mind. "If my Dad is still thought guilty, I suppose he's gotten away."

"He used Holly's wand." Hermione is still petting Buckbeak nervously. Orion realizes that when she gets nervous, really truly nervous, that she has to have something to do with her hands. "It must have fallen from her pocket when she began to feel ill. He freed himself whilst you were fighting the Lupins with your father, and then he transfigured back into a rat." Orion swallows thickly and focuses on the pumpkins he can see through the window in the waning light. "I'm sorry! Really, Orion, I tried to get him again, but Snape woke up and I had to do something. You had knocked him out twice."

"What did you do?" Orion's voice holds no emotions, but he's actually curious. "Got yourself in trouble, probably."

"I'm friends with Harry, I'm always getting myself in trouble."

"Hey!" Buckbeak nips at Harry's hand when the boy shouts at them, silencing him.

"I changed his memories." Hermione finally admits. "It was hard, and I'm not sure I've done it correctly, but he didn't seem to remember that you did anything to him, let alone that you were there." She shrugs like it's no big deal. Orion's eyebrows rest against his hairline, and he can feel his heartbeat against every inch of his skin. "He was going to have you expelled."

"Another mark on the Black family name, then," Orion smirks and continues to rub at his covered wounds. "I don't need a wand to practice magic, but it does make it easier." Harry stands, then and moves toward the door. "Safer in here, innit? That's what you said, Harry."

"I have to see who cast the Patronus." He says like it explains his actions. It certainly doesn't explain anything to Orion, who was off in the woods for anything that happened after the full moon reached its peak. Orion raises his arms in an idignant shrug, eyebrows raised as he locks eyes with Hermione. "Stay here. I'll be back after I figure it out."

"Harry, you can't." Hermione rushes to slam the door after he's opened it. "If you see yourself-"

"-I know. I'll go mad. It's worth it, isn't it? It was my Dad, Hermione. I swear it." They seem to have a silent conversation before Orion stands on shaky legs. "What are you doing?"

"I'm going with you." Orion shrugs. "It's a reasonable answer. You want to see what you want to see, and I want to see what I want to see." He has a feeling they're going to argue, but he sets his face. The concept is bouncing around in his head, the idea that he can set everything right if he makes it into the woods on four feet. "I'm not asking, either, mate. I'm leaving, and neither of you can stop me."

Hermione lets them both leave, even if Orion is looking rather pale and sickly. He fidgets with his wand in his pocket, wondering what the appropriate time to ditch Harry is. "Sirius lost Lupin 'round the Black Lake. He was exhausted, and hurt." Harry speaks lowly as they walk, taking a roundabout way to the edge of the lake. "Hermione and I went after him, but there were dementors everywhere. Neither of us was strong enough to fight them off, but then there was this light. A deer, walking over the water towards us. My Dad, he was called Prongs. His animagus was a stag. It seems to fit, doesn't it?"

Orion sighs and cuts a look to Harry.

"Look, I know. I get it, he's dead. You don't have to tell me that. Orion, I swear he was there. I have to go see who it was." They approach the edge of the lake, water lapping softly at their sneakers. "This is where it came from." Across the lake, they can see themselves - Orion's holding Holly as she convulses. "I'll hide here, see if I can catch who cast it. I won't ask what you're doing, but meet back at Hagrid's hut when you're done."

Orion claps Harry on the shoulder once before heading to the left, dropping to four feet as soon as he's out of the boy's sight. It hurts, burns as much as it did the first time he transfigured himself, but he has to keep going. Orion tries to control the instinct to pant, but his eyes widen regardless. Showing the whites of his eyes is dangerous, especially with two werewolves running around. The canine instinct runs deep.

Regardless, he rounds the lake and watches, with much better eyesight than before, as Peter picks up a discarded wand and frees himself. Hermione whips around and casts a spell, but it misses. Peter shrinks, disappearing from sight, as Snape rises to his feet.

He doesn't stay to watch Hermione work on Snape's memory, no matter how much he wants to. Orion takes off at a trot, his tongue hanging out of his mouth, as he searches for the rat that's sure to be running through the woods. He catches the scent and takes a sharp left, his footfalls becoming heavier and faster as he begins to run.

Peter's scent gets heavier and thicker, and Orion thinks that he's back on two legs, then. The warm wash of magic at the border of the castle ground startles him, and he gets nervous, even if it's only for a moment. Anything can happen off of Hogwarts grounds. People can apparate in, disapparate out. He's not under the protection of the spells and magic that the teachers upkeep. Orion spots Peter pacing in a relatively clear spot in the trees, and he rises to two feet just outside of the man's sight. Anger boils in him, and he wants to hurt Peter. The same feeling he'd had when he cast the Unforgivable curse wells up in him again, and several plants reach out for his skin as he stands in the dark.

The man in front of him was the reason he'd grown up without a father. The reason Harry had grown up without a father and a mother. Peter single-handedly ruined five lives, and here he was: still living a luxurious life as a rat where he hadn't a care in the world. Orion shakes off the botanical life clinging to him and rushes out of his hiding spot and seizes Peter by the shirt, pausing only to cock his arm back and land a solid punch. "You bastard!" He hollers, "I should kill you for what you've done to my father." Peter squalls, and tries to get away. He doesn't manage it, though, because Orion is taller and stronger than him.

Orion's just about to draw his wand when Peter says something that makes his blood run cold. "He's not your father!"

"Codswallop!"

"He's not, I swear! I wouldn't lie to you, boy." Orion shoves Peter to the ground, and the man cowers at his feet. "They thought it was safer to give you up, to leave you with Sirius. They were on a mission, with the Order. They didn't know what to do with you, so Sirius agreed to raise you as his own!" He whimpers when Orion aims his wand at Peter's throat. Both of them know several spells are on the tip of Orion's tongue, and not one of them are legal. "Marlene stepped in because she said you'd need a mother!"

"I don't believe you for a second, traitor. You're a coward and a liar, but I'll humor you. Who gave me up then?" He mocks Peter's frantic whimpers, bending at the waist to get closer to the crying man. His chest and stomach hurt so much, and he's sure they're bleeding again, but his blood is rushing in his ears and he can't even really feel his wounds. Grass surges from underneath them, eager to get a grip on Orion. His skin is crawling with magic again, and he lets the grass nearly cover Peter before he speaks again. "Kneazle got your tongue, rat?"

"I shouldn't tell you." Orion hits him with a stinging hex, not even blinking when Peter howls. He's only fifteen years old and not on school grounds - the ministry would be in the woods soon. "It was James and Lily! James and Lily Potter are your parents!"


	16. 1.6 you're bleeding magic.

Orion's not sure how the Trace works if he's being honest, but after he's done with Peter he doesn't stick around. He limps back through the protective magic before anyone from the Ministry arrives. That's a win, he supposes. It's not like Orion's left a dead body behind, either; he's left Peter sobbing on the ground and weeping for forgiveness. Orion didn't give him that - in fact, Orion almost killed him.

He wanted to kill Peter. The thought hangs heavy in his stomach and he wonders who he's become this year at Hogwarts.

Orion hobbles farther into the woods before shaking his body out to his animagus form, finding it easier to move. He makes his way back to the lake, passing Harry. The boy is still waiting to see who's cast the Patronus, which means that Orion still has time. He circles around until he smells blood. It makes his stomach turn even more violently than before, and he sneezes once before dropping his snout to the dirt. The smell of blood is always unique. Holly's smells different from Moony's. He's never smelt this particular blood before but knows that it's his own. Some instinct twists in his gut that he needs to get help, but rationally he knows that he's already gotten help.

Orion follows the scent of the blood until he's sure he'll be smelling sharp iron for days, and then he finds his own body. It's torn up, and he's barely breathing, but he's alive. Orion gazes at his own bloody body for only a moment before rising to two legs and trying to heal himself. He's playing with time, and he knows it, but part of Orion wonders if this is what happened when he was laying in that spot. (It hurts his head to think about how he is the one in the spot, technically, so he doesn't dwell on the finer technicalities of time travel.) He casts a few meager healing spells on his own body, but they don't do much. They never do for wounds inflicted by the claws of a werewolf.

He stands and wipes his bloody hand on his trousers, wracking his brain for what to do. In the distance, he hears Harry shouting and hopes the boy isn't doing anything daft - like what he's about to do. His mind is buzzing, trying to decide between whether or not he believes Peter or whether or not he thinks it's a crock of shit. Orion shakes his head and points his wand at the sky. "Expecto Patronum."

He uses his normal memories to cast it but removes the tainted memories from the round-up. The shrew bursts from the end of his wand and swirls back around to float in front of him. "Can you find Malfoy? Draco Malfoy, he's a third-year in the Slytherin dorms. Relay this message: Come find me. I need help. It's urgent." The shrew swirls around his head before darting off between the trees. Orion has never used a Patronus to send a message before, but he's sure that he can do it. He's sure that the shrew will get to Malfoy, but not really sure that the boy will come after him. It can't hurt to try, though.

Orion makes his way away from his own body, and back to Hagrid's hut. Hermione opens the door and helps him inside, fretting over him and the fresh blood on his trousers. He swats her away without explaining, and they settle into Hagrid's couch to wait for Harry to come back. Orion can't stop thinking about what Peter said. He was the Potter's secret-keeper, so why wouldn't he know about the adoption? If Peter knew, then surely Moony would have known. He picks at his lip and wonders why nobody had told him. It seemed that Holly had known, too. His stomach twists and his chest begins to cramp. For a brief moment, he worries that he's having a heart attack, but then he just figures that it's his gashes giving him trouble.

Several things begin to fall into place for Orion, but then Harry bursts through the door a few minutes later and the puzzle is scattered again. Harry ushers them out of the hut, cooing at Buckbeak and petting his forehead as he does so. Buckbeak bends to allow Orion to scramble on, and the teenager leans heavily against the bird's head once more. He wraps his arms around the thick neck, doing his best not to pull at any feathers. Surely he's bleeding again and he wonders if the bird will have to preen to get the bloodied feathers off of his neck. Once Harry and Hermione are settled behind Orion the bird takes off at a rough trot that dispels any of Orion's thoughts and then Buckbeak takes flight.

Orion immediately feels ill and tries not to be sick over the side of the bird as Harry urges him in the direction they need to go. Orion presses his face into the feathers in front of him and closes his eyes until they land. He slips off of Buckbeak onto weak legs and draws his wand as they approach where his father is being held - in Flitwick's office, of all places. The unlocking charm doesn't work on the door and Hermione is worried they're going to get caught loitering.

Harry and Orion share a look, and the elder boy lets Harry have the opportunity to blast the door away wholly. Sirius is there, curled against the desk, and doesn't even look up when the door falls away into dust and rubble. Orion steps past Hermione and Harry, pocketing his wand. "Dad?" The word tastes sour in his mouth.

Sirius looks up then, and Orion helps him stand despite being weak himself. They embrace, and Orion does his best not to cry as he hugs his father for the first time in twelve years. His father is too skinny, and rough around the edges. He smells, frankly, like a man who's been in prison for a decade and then living like a dog for months. Orion doesn't care, though, because his father is innocent and it's known now. "What are you lot doing here?"

Orion leads his father out to where Harry and Hermione are waiting with Buckbeak, though he can't do much to support the man. "We're here to save your life." He says, leaning on his father as he walks. "Dumbeldore sanctioned us if you can believe that." Sirius takes Harry into a hug, and then Hermione as well.

"Of course I can. Dumbeldore is a crazy old codger." He eyes Buckbeak, who nudges into his outstretched hand. "What a beautiful bird." Hermione takes a few moments to heal some of Sirius' smaller wounds, and then the group settles in an empty, hidden corridor. Orion grasps his father in a hug once more, burying his face in the elder's stinky, bony neck and staying there.

It's so strange to hug his father again, and he begins to shake so badly that he has to be sat down. Orion doesn't want to cry in front of Sirius, but he begins to, anyway. Harry and Hermione step away to give them space, and he's thankful for that. There are several things that Orion wants to bring up, and he's not sure how to broach the subject of any of them. Finally, after gentle prodding from Sirius, he decides on the most pressing matter. "I went to see Peter before this."

"Peter got away. What are you talking about?"

"It's a long story; we probably don't have time. But he told me something... I'm not sure I should believe him." He watches as his father pales, but gestures for him to continue. "He told me you're not my real father."

The way Sirius looks guilty to the floor makes Orion think that Peter had it right.

"But you are! Of course, you are." His voice pitches toward panic, and he works on tamping it down. He can't lose his cool, not after everything he had done that night - both times he'd lived through it. "It's rubbish, innit? Because I look like you. I have your name."

Sirius kneels in front of Orion and grabs the boy's hands. His face is solemn, but his eyes are fond and scared. He's shaking nearly as bad as Orion is and that makes the boy scared. In fact, Orion is more scared than he's ever been in his life. "You shouldn't blame them, Orion. Or Remus, really. It was my idea to keep it a secret."

"Oh, God." He wants to throw up. He feels sick. His world is collapsing around him.

"James and Lily weren't ready for a child, Orion. You have to understand. Neither was I, but I hadn't just come off a mission for the Order. I was safer than they were, in a way. Please, don't think any less of them. Or of me. I kept this from you because I didn't want you to feel like I loved you any differently." Orion pulls away and stands, legs trembling. His lip is trembling too, and he's crying again because he's doing the math in his head. He was born on the twenty-second of August, and Harry was born on the thirty-first of June... They - his parents - had to have given Orion up, and then almost immediately fallen pregnant with Harry.

"They weren't ready for a child in August, but come July they're ready for a baby boy?" Orion knows he's being too loud, but he doesn't care if Harry or Hermione hear. He wants answers. "When they found out they were pregnant after shoving me off on you, they were ready?" Sirius walks forward with every step that Orion takes back.

"Marlene had already joined me then to raise you, Orion. We were a family! James and Lily couldn't bear to break us up." Sirius pulls the boy into a forceful hug and Orion only struggles for a few seconds. "It would have broken me if they had taken you, and endangered your life as well. I couldn't bear to part with you, Orion and Lily couldn't bear to part with a second son. She barely made it through leaving you. Lily and James loved you very much, you must believe that."

"They didn't want me." Hurt crawls up Orion's throat, and he grasps onto Sirius' sides. "They gave me away."

"But you had Marlene and me." Sirius makes Orion look him in the eyes, cupping the boy's face. "It didn't matter if you weren't born to us. She loved you like you were her own. In her eyes, she was your Mum. You're still my son, Orion. I don't love you any less just because I had no part in creating you."

"You're still my Dad, but... I've got this whole history I don't know about. I'm not a pureblood, I'm half-blooded. It changes everything." He hiccups into Sirius' shoulder, pressing his face against it. "I thought that being in Slytherin was because I was a Black, but now... I'm just a mark on the Potter's name."

Sirius takes Orion's face in his hands once more. "No, don't you ever think that. You could never be a mark on anyone's lives, not with this." Sirius then jabs a finger into Orion's chest, where the boy's heart sits. "You've got the brightest heart I've ever seen, Orion. I remember it. I remember your smile and your laugh. A child as bright, and happy, as you were cannot grow into anything other than someone destined to change the world."

"You don't even know me anymore."

"But I do know how I raised you for two bloody amazing years, and Rem's been raising you for the other thirteen." Sirius still hasn't let go of the boy's face. "Nobody could be raised by one of the best men I know and not turn out to be an upstanding lad."

"Can I still call you Dad? Do I have to change my name? I don't want to be Orion Potter." Sirius chuckles and nods, not even trying to hide the way he's crying. "I still want to be your son."

"You'll always be my son, Orion. That will never change. It's never changed, not once. I'm sorry that I didn't come to see you - well, I had. A few times, as a dog. I hoped that you might recognize me. I used to give you rides in the garden when you were small enough to fit on my back." Sirius gives his son a small, timid smile. Part of Orion always knew that the dog had been his father, but he hadn't ever let himself hope that it was. He was too young when he moved in with Moony to remember what Sirius' animagus form was.

Even so, a brief memory hits Orion all at once, and he smiles at his father. "Yeah, I remember that. 'Spose that's why I wasn't afraid of the mangy mutt that watched me train every day."

Harry and Hermione interrupt the moment, nearly running into Sirius and Orion. Hermione looks pale and interjects. "I know you haven't seen each other in nearly a decade and a half, but I can hear someone coming. Even Buckbeak's nervous. We have to get you out of here, Sirius, and we have to get back to the hospital wing."

The group scrambles to somewhere that allows Buckbeak to take off into the air. Before Sirius mounts the bird he takes Harry in a tight hug, and then Hermione. Orion is last, and then they watch as the fugitive climbs onto the hippogriff. "Hermione, you remind me so much of Lily. She was the brightest witch I've ever met, but you're a close second. Harry, we'll figure out a way to get you out of that ruddy muggle house, even if it's just for a visit. Orion, I have to spend at least the summer laying low, but when that's done we'll talk about bringing you home."

The trio waves Sirius off, and then Hermione is tugging them along to the hospital wing. "I have to tell you what he told me." Orion catches Harry by the sleeve so they match pace with each other, following Hermione. "It affects you too." He's still hurting somewhere deep inside himself and he's not sure that it'll ever go away, but maybe he and Harry can commiserate over the news.

"I already know." Harry shakes his head with his eyes set dead ahead as they hurry through the castle. "While you were unconscious, Dumbledore told me, and Hermione. Ron was awake then, but barely, so I would assume he knows too."

"Dumbledore knew?!" Orion trips on his feet, as indignation and anger rises in his chest. "He's never bloody mentioned anything to me about it." Harry grabs Orion's arms to right the taller boy.

"Yeah, well neither has Holly, has she?" Harry snaps back as they continue. "Dumbledore had his reasons, probably."

"Probably, you say." Orion snarks back, trying to keep his voice low so that it doesn't echo. "Holly only knows because she's Moony's kid. He can't keep a secret from her to save his life."

Harry scoffs and cuts a sharp glare to Orion. "So you're only mad that Dumbledore knew and didn't tell you? Not your best friend, or your God-father? Or your father?"

"Well, I suppose nobody had the time because my father had just broken out of Azkaban! It's not every day that someone does that, you know. I'm sure it slipped his mind." Orion growls, and barely resists the urge to trip Harry as they run.

"Boys! This is not the time to be arguing about who knew or who should have told. We have to get back to the hospital wing before Madame comes out from her office and finds us missing." Hermione properly chastises the boys and they fall silent. It's good they do because the long drawl of a familiar voice stops her in her tracks, and they run into her back. "Shh!"

"It's just Malfoy." Orion hisses in her ear, ducking his head to do so. "He won't give a rat's arse if we're out of the wing." Harry scoffs, but Hermione stomps on his foot to silence him and then turns to Orion.

"You're thick, aren't you? Malfoy is the one who brought you to the hospital wing, you dolt. He didn't leave your side until..." She takes a second to process something and then gasps. Hermione turns on her heel and nearly bumps noses with Orion, who was still hunched over. She grabs the front of his shirt in two fists, shaking them for a second before dropping the fabric."He didn't leave your side until Dumbledore told us that Sirius and Marlene weren't your birth parents. Then the little bugger took off."

"Malfoy knows?" Orion croaks. He straightens and jerks away from Hermione's grasp. Swallowing thickly, he strains to listen for Malfoy's voice again, but he doesn't hear it.

"I don't doubt the whole of Slytherin knows by now," Harry whispers. "It'll spread to the rest of the houses by morning."

"Oh, bollocks." Orion moans. "Let's just get back to the hospital wing so that I can have Madame give me painkillers and I can pretend none of this ever happened."


End file.
